There Comes a Time
by gleefan13
Summary: Back in their land, Lila (Rapunzel) had once had impossibly long hair and the power to heal. In Storybrooke, her hair is distinctly missing and she is living with a disease that just may kill her. One thing, however, remains the same, in both places, she calls Regina her friend. It's a friendship that, to her dismay, Regina just can't seem to turn away from.
1. Prologue: And you can't get back again

**A/N:** So, I just wanted to give a little bit of background before I got into the story. This fic will be vastly different from anything I've ever written before. It's my first Once Upon a Time fanfic but what really makes it stand out from my past fanfics for me is the fact that one of the main characters will be an OC (the other main character will be Regina, although the majority of the show characters will be making an appearance). I've never actually written an OC before but I got this idea stuck in my head and I couldn't make it go away. I figured that, for my own sanity, I may as well go ahead and try and write it out.

This fic will be slightly AU since it will eventually span season 1 (and my OC didn't exist in the actual season 1). However, the main plot points from season 1 will remain intact. The fic will be set up much like the show, it will tell both a Fairy Tale Land and a Storybrooke story. The Storybrooke story will start before Emma arrives and will continue after her arrival (it will be in chronological order). For ease of writing, the Fairy Tale Land story will also be in chronological order.

Note that I made a couple of assumptions about the curse that are more than likely inaccurate but they were necessary for the plot.

Just a warning, in the Storybrooke portion of the story, this fic will be dealing with cancer.

As always, I do not own anything. Also, the story title comes from the song "There Comes a Time" by Graham Colton. The italicized lyrics at the beginning of each part will be from this song.

Anyway, that's enough rambling now, I hope you enjoy.

**There Comes a Time**

**Prologue**

Regina

_And you can't get back again_

The curse doesn't work quite the way Regina wants it to. Sure it takes away everyone's happy endings but she doesn't get to control the details, not to the extent she'd like to anyway, not to the extent she assumed she would get to. As far as she can tell, everyone's new happy ending-less lives seem to waver vastly in fairness. In some cases the way the curse has worked seems too perfect, almost comical – Regina honestly has to keep herself from laughing when she realizes that Cinderella is not only back to living with her step mother and step sisters but also back to being a maid. In other cases the curse seems far too light – it really can't be punishment enough for Snow White to simply be reduced to living as a meek, lonely school teacher, with her true love not only married but in a coma. Sometimes though, the sentence that the curse has exacted seems, even to Regina, unfair – in those very few cases she knows that, if she had a heart at all, she would be sorry.

There's also the problem that the curse doesn't come with a guide book. Regina is convinced that it really should have come with a who's who in Storybrooke of some sort because, even with being mayor and having access to public records, it's hard to figure out what has become of everyone. There simply aren't enough hours in a day, even when you have eternity, to sort all the details out. For that reason, three whole years pass before she runs into someone that she has to place in the "the curse is unfair" category and the discovery honestly takes her by complete surprise – she never expected to think anything other than that everyone got exactly what they deserved.

xxxxxx

It happens at the hospital. Regina is there to check on Charming, or more specifically to check that no one else has been checking on him, when she runs into the girl in the elevator. Regina legitimately doesn't recognize her at first, she looks so different than she did the last time Regina saw her back in their land, but something about the way the girl smiles at her catches her eye. At first she thinks it's simply because few people in Storybrooke ever smile at her but slowly she realizes that it's actually because she recognizes the smile. In another time and place, she'd been on the receiving end of that exact same smile. The realization that she knows who this girl really is startles her, so much so that she loses her balance as the elevator slows to a halt.

"You okay?" The girl asks, reaching her hand out to steady her.

Regina shrugs away from her, hardening her face, upset that she's shown any sign of weakness. "I'm fine," she answers, glaring when the girl continues to stare at her. "What do you want?" She snaps.

The girl motions to the elevator doors that Regina happens to be blocking. "This is my stop," she smiles, shrugging sheepishly.

"Oh." Regina moves out of the way quickly once she realizes the problem. She doesn't want to chance the doors closing before the girl manages to exit. She can't stand the thought of being trapped in this elevator with this girl a moment longer.

"Bye," the girl waves as she steps off. "Have a great day."

Regina doesn't answer, she just watches as the girl heads away from the elevator. As the doors close, she can't help but eye the sign on the wall opposite the elevator, the one with an arrow pointing in the direction the girl is heading, the one that reads "Oncology". The girl's lack of hair, the reason why Regina hadn't recognized her at first, leaves no doubt – this girl is a cancer patient.

xxxxx

The realization that the girl has been cursed with cancer doesn't bother Regina quite so much at first, even given who she is. When she really thinks about it, the whole thing is sort of ironic. The girl who back in their land had once had impossibly long hair, now has none. The girl who back in their land had had the power to heal, now has a possibly fatal disease. It's certainly one way to take away someone's happy ending.

It's not until five, then ten, then twenty years pass that Regina really starts to wonder about the fairness of the whole thing, really starts to wish that the curse had taken this girl's happy ending away another way, had given her a different story. The thing is, in a town where time never moves forward and everything always stays the same, the girl's life becomes nothing more than one chemo cycle after the next – sure she may never get worse, never be in any real danger of dying, but there is also no chance that she will ever get better. After a while, Regina comes to the conclusion that there aren't many things that are crueler than spending an eternity as a cancer patient. It's a conclusion that is hard for her to admit.

The worst part about the whole thing is that at one point, back in their land, Regina probably would have called this girl, Rapunzel, her friend. Or maybe the worst part is that, here in Storybrooke, after a while, Lila takes to calling Regina her friend. Either way, it's a friendship that Regina is sure would crumble if Lila (or Rapunzel) ever learned the truth.

xxxxxx


	2. Part 1: You breathe in and out, Story

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 1 - Storybrooke**

Lila

_You breathe in and breathe out_

Lila wakes up late. She's tired and she wants nothing more than to roll over and close her eyes and drift off again but she's already slept longer than she should and that's not really an option because it's the second Wednesday of the month and that makes it appointment day.

Even though she knows that it's appointment day and that she's already running late, it still takes her another five minutes to convince herself to get out of bed. Laying there, she closes her eyes and wishes for it to be tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that one, but when she opens her eyes again it's still Wednesday, still appointment day. She sighs, finally slipping out of her cocoon of blankets and setting her feet down onto the cold floor. She thinks that she really ought to buy some slippers – although, she's pretty sure that she's had that same thought every morning that she can remember and she has yet to do anything about it, so she really doubts that she'll ever actually get around to buying slippers.

At least once she's up it doesn't take her very long to get ready. After all, it's not like she has to do her hair, a fact that she spends a lot of time trying, usually unsuccessfully, to convince herself is a perk – the only time she ever comes even remotely close to convincing herself is on mornings like this one when she's running impossibly late. This morning, even with her getting ready time drastically reduced, she's still running far enough behind that she doesn't even have time for breakfast. Instead, she grabs a granola bar from the cupboard, shoving it in her coat pocket before she pulls on her sneakers. Breakfast to go will have to do for today. Not that she's really hungry anyway. Her stomach is already turning – clearly it knows that it's appointment day.

Lila double checks her bag to make sure that she's got everything she needs before she closes and locks her apartment door. Sliding her keys in her pocket with the granola bar, she heads down the stairs. As she reaches the bottom, slightly out of breath, she can't help but wish that she lived on the first floor of the building, or at least that the building had an elevator. Going down isn't so bad but walking up a flight of stairs has become increasingly challenging. She decides that if her appointment doesn't run too long today she'll stop in and see Mr. Gold, he might have a better apartment option for her.

She steps outside, smiling when she realizes that the sun is shining. Sunshine makes any day, even appointment day, better. Plus, it's much nicer to walk in the sun than in the rain or the cold. At least one thing that her current apartment does have going for it is its proximity to the hospital. She can easily walk there most days and she likes the independence that that grants her.

As she heads in the direction of the hospital, she glances up at the clock tower. 8:15. At least according to the town clock, she's on time. She almost chuckles at the thought of keeping appointments based on that clock. She supposes that that would be one way to guarantee that she would always be on time. The clock has been stuck on 8:15 for as long as she can remember. Honestly, sometimes she wonders why no one has ever fixed the thing, really.

It only takes Lila five minutes to get to the hospital. Once she's standing in front of the building, for one brief second, she considers just turning around and going home but, as much as she would love to do just that, she knows that it's not a legitimate option. Appointment day sucks but it's a necessary evil. A necessary evil that she will endure as long as is required because the alternative…well, she tries not to think about the alternative.

Taking a deep breath, she pushes away any lingering thoughts of fleeing, and steps inside the hospital. The distinctive smell of whatever cleaner brand they use here and the sound of the automatic sliding door closing behind her register in her brain the way she imagines that the sound of a starting gun registers in the brain of a racer. Ready or not, it's appointment time and, just like that, so begins another chemo cycle.

xxxxxx

An hour and a half later, with blood drawn and checked, and a green light from her oncologist to get treatment today, Lila sits in the waiting room waiting to be called back into the chemo suite. She checks her watch, though the gesture is mostly out of habit because she's not too concerned with the actual time. No matter what time her watch says it is, it will probably be an hour or so before they're ready for her. They always seem to be running behind, which really begs the question of why she rushes to make it here on time in the first place.

She riffles through her bag, passing over her anti-nausea meds, which she'll wait to take in a half an hour or so, and reaching for her book. She pulls it out but then changes her mind. She's still tired and she's not really sure her brain is up to focusing on the book. Putting it back in her bag, she decides to settle for simply people watching for the time being.

Today, like every other day that she's taken up people watching anywhere on the oncology floor, she notices that, by far, she's the youngest person in the room. She supposes that's a good thing. Honestly, it would be disheartening if there were lots of other twenty-something's making their homes on the oncology floor and she would never ever wish cancer on someone else just so that she could have someone her age to talk to. Still, the fact remains that being a twenty-five year old cancer patient is a lonely business.

Lila has just finished taking stock of the people in the room, all regulars that she recognizes, most by name, when someone new walks into the room. She's actually kind of surprised when she realizes that this someone new in question is Regina Mills, the mayor of Storybrooke. This actually isn't the first time that she's seen the mayor at the hospital, she'd run into her in the elevator at her last appointment a few weeks ago. However, seeing someone at the hospital and seeing someone on the oncology floor are two different things. Aside from the volunteers and the doctors and nurses, Lila has only ever seen cancer patients and their supporters on this floor. No one who didn't have to be here ever came here, as far as she knew. For that reason, she is genuinely curious about what the mayor is doing here.

She's even more surprised, when the mayor glances around the room and then makes a beeline for her, stopping in front of her.

Lila looks up at the dark haired woman but she can't read the expression on her face and she finds herself holding her breath in anticipation of what might happen next.

"Hello," Regina finally says.

Well that really wasn't worth holding her breath, Lila muses to herself. She still can't really tell what's going on though, so she simply offers a tentative, "hi," in return.

"My name is Regina Mills," Regina announces. "I'm the mayor of Storybrooke."

"Riiight," Lila drags the word out. Does Regina Mills really think that Lila doesn't know that she's the mayor?

"May I sit?" Regina's curt tone tells Lila that the mayor is probably less than enthused with her previous response. Then again, from what she's gathered over the years, it seems like maybe the mayor is less than enthused with a lot of things.

"Sure," Lila smiles. She's still not sure what's going on but she figures she may as well be pleasant. "I'm Lila by the way. Lila Lock". Seeing the strange look the mayor gives her she goes on, "I know it's a ridiculous sounding name but it's the one that's on my birth certificate, I swear. I think that people always assume that I'm just screwing up the pronunciation of lilac or something. Honestly, I'm not really sure what my parents were thinking when they picked it but, whatever, it's good for creating conversation at least, right?" She stops herself there, realizing that she's starting to ramble.

"Um…I suppose?" Regina answers. She seems uncertain if she should agree with the statement or not.

Lila waits for the mayor to say something else – she was the one to stop and talk to her after all. When she doesn't, Lila eventually just goes ahead and asks the question that she's dying to know the answer to. "So, Madam Mayor, what brings you to chemo land?"

"Oh, uh…" Regina looks surprised, like she hadn't been expecting the question. "Well, I'm the mayor. I'm here on mayor business." She seems to recover quickly from her original stumble, and the last part or her answer comes out with an air of authority, as if implying simply by tone that it's ridiculous for Lila to be questioning her at all.

Lila isn't sure what kind of mayor business needs to be conducted in the chemo suite waiting room but she's not about to push. The last thing she needs is to make the mayor mad. She's heard rumours about how hard your life can be if you make the mayor your enemy. "Okay…well…uh…do you need help with something?"

Regina nods slowly. "Yes, in fact I do." She seems confident now. "I'm gathering data about the hospital. There might be some surplus budget this year and I'm looking for the ideal place to spend it. I wanted to interview some patients regarding the care they are receiving. Could I speak to you about the oncology department?"

Lila is silent a moment. She isn't really sure she wants to talk about her cancer experience with the mayor of all people but she isn't really sure she has a choice in the mater, even though the mayor is making it seem like she does. She supposes it won't really hurt anything to talk to her. "Uh…okay. You can. Sure." She nods her head repeatedly but stops as soon as she realizes that she's doing it – clearly nodding on top of the rambling is not necessary to make her answer clear.

"Good." The mayor offers her a small tight lipped smile.

Lila returns the smile with a wide, bright, one of her own. She's never been one to hold back on the smiling.

Lila is momentarily distracted by one of the chemo nurses coming out of the back room. She quickly glances at her watch – given the time, it's probably not going to be long now before she gets called back to get hooked up to her IV pole. She realizes that she might not actually have time for what she's just agreed to. Great, she thinks, biting her lip. "Uh…how long do you think this will take? I'm uh…I'll be heading in for chemo soon."

"Oh." Regina nods. "That's okay. We can make an appointment." She pulls out a small calendar book and flips through the pages. "Does my office tomorrow at 11:00 suit you?"

Lila doesn't have to consult a calendar to know that she's free. Being a cancer patient has made her schedule pretty predictable. Every other Wednesday she's here at the hospital, otherwise, she's usually free. She does know that tomorrow will work fairly well for her because the worst of the chemo effects won't have set in yet. With that in mind, she easily agrees. "Sure, sounds good."

"Alright then Ms. Lock, I shall see you tomorrow at 11:00 sharp," Regina says, standing up.

"See you then, Madam Mayor," Lila waves, as Regina retreats out of the room.

Once the mayor is gone, Lila reaches into her bag and pulls out her anti-nausea pills – she definitely can't forget to take those, she can only imagine how terrible her life would be without them. As she swallows the handful of pills down with a gulp of water, she contemplates what has just happened. The whole thing seems sort of surreal. She really can't believe that the mayor of Storybrooke had just been talking to her and, on top of that, that she wants to interview her.

Lila is not really sure what she should expect from this interview tomorrow but she feels like she can pretty much guarantee one thing, whatever happens, it's certainly going to be interesting.

xxxxxx


	3. Part 2: Thinking it out loud, Story

**There Comes a Time  
**

**Part 2 – Storybrooke**

Regina

_Thinking it out loud_

On the morning of her fake interview with Lila, Regina busies herself by straightening some of the papers on her desk in her Town Hall office. Straightening things is kind of a habit of hers, the kind of habit that keeps her office, and her home, perpetually neat. It's the kind of habit that tells volumes about her personality, or at least that's what she imagines Archie would say. The truth is that she likes order, likes the control that comes with order.

She tries to convince herself that seeking out Rapunzel, now named Lila, is all about keeping order and control. She tries to convince herself that she's only doing this interview to gather information because of the curse. After all, knowing everything about the people of Storybrooke, the people she's cursed, is only prudent. Of course, a nagging voice in the back of her head reminds her that the fact that, to date, she hasn't gone out of her way to interview anyone else in town probably suggests ulterior motives but she tries her best to ignore that voice. She's not willing to admit, even to herself, that she might care about what is wrong with the clearly sick girl. The real truth is that ever since she ran into Lila in the elevator at the hospital she's spent a great deal of time wondering about her, about what has become of Rapunzel here in Storybrooke. Why? She isn't exactly sure. She's sure that if Archie knew all of the details, he might suggest that it has something to do with their shared history.

Once she finishes organizing all of the papers on her desk, she glances up at the clock, Rapunzel, no Lila she reminds herself, should be here any minute.

Right on time there is a knock on the door.

"Come in," Regina calls, standing and heading towards the doorway.

Lila pokes her head in the room, tentatively. "Hello?"

"Hello Ms. Lock," Regina says, pulling the door fully open. "Thank you for being punctual. I'm a busy woman." She doesn't know why she says that, given that she's the one who invited Lila here, but it feels important to her that she seem disinterested. Maybe it will fool Lila into believing that she doesn't care about what is going on with her in the least. More importantly, maybe it will fool herself into believing the same thing.

Lila frowns slightly at the comment but she recovers quickly. She offers Regina a smile, nodding in greeting, "good morning Madam Mayor." As she steps into the room, she glances around, clearly taking in the unusual office décor.

As the younger girl looks around, Regina watches her carefully. She looks different than she did yesterday. She's paler, almost ghostly white, and there are dark circles under eyes. She's wearing loose fitting jeans, a warm grey jacket and there is a knit beige toque adorned with a purple flower covering her head. Regina can't help but wonder if she's feeling okay because she certainly doesn't look well. Regina doesn't want to ask though, so instead she asks, "can I take your coat?"

The question seems to startle Lila and she jumps slightly. She glances back at Regina and away from the picture she's been looking at on the wall. "Sure, thanks," she nods pulling off her coat but leaving her toque on. Under her coat she has on a long-sleeve purple cotton v-neck shirt and she shivers seemingly involuntary at the loss of warmth that taking her jacket off has caused.

Regina frowns when she notices the girl shiver. She glances over the fireplace, which is lit. It really isn't cold in the room and she once again can't help but wonder exactly how well Lila is feeling. However, she still doesn't say anything. Instead, she just takes the coat and hangs it up on the coat rack in the corner. She points to the couch. "Well Ms. Lock, why don't you take a seat?" She doesn't add because you look like you're about to fall over.

Lila doesn't need to be told twice. She moves over to the couch and sits down. "You know you can just call me Lila, right? Ms. Lock makes me feel old or something."

Regina frowns. She prefers to call people by their last names, it keeps things impersonal. "Do you want something to drink…Lila?" She can't keep the distaste out of her voice when she uses the girl's first name.

Lila looks puzzled by the change in the tone in Regina's voice but she doesn't say anything about it. She does, however, shake her head quickly and vehemently, when asked about a drink, as if she is repulsed by the thought of drinking anything. "No. Thank you." She says decisively.

Regina eyes her suspiciously, unsure what that is all about, but eventually she looks away, letting it go. She pours a glass of water for herself and settles on the couch opposite Lila. "So, Ms. Lock. You are a patient at the hospital? On the oncology floor?"

Lila frowns when Regina calls her Ms. Lock again but she answers, "yes, I am."

"And you're okay with me asking you questions about your medical care? Whatever you tell me will remain confidential, I assure you." Regina knows that technically Lila doesn't have to tell her anything but she really hopes that she does – mostly because if she refuses to talk, it will be hard for Regina to get the information elsewhere. It's not that she thinks she can't get around the medical confidentiality rules, it's just that she doesn't want to deal with the hassle of getting around them.

Lila doesn't answer right away. Her face goes blank and she chews on her lip for a moment, as if she is seriously contemplating whether or not to agree. Eventually she shrugs, "yes, it's okay."

"Thank you," Regina answers and strangely she actually does feel thankful. "Why don't we start with your diagnosis?" She picks up the pad of paper and notebook she's left on the table. She figures she will take notes so as not to arouse suspicion. This is supposed to be an interview after all.

"Hodgkin's Lymphoma, stage 2B," Lila answers quickly without blinking, as if she's repeated the diagnosis a million times and, for all Regina knows, maybe she has. "You know, the good cancer," she adds, her tone dripping with sarcasm in a way that suggests that she's heard it referred to that way before.

Regina ignores the good cancer comment, not really sure what an appropriate response would be. focuses instead on the actual diagnosis. "2B?" Regina questions, unsure of what that really means. "Could you elaborate?"

Lila, once again doesn't hesitate to answer. "2 is good. Or better, I guess. Whatever the cancer version of sucks less is." She seems to struggle with finding the right words, although, at the same time, her answer seems almost rehearsed, like she's said the same thing many times before. "Stage 2 for Hodgkin's just means that all the disease is above my diaphragm but it's not Stage 1 because it's all over the place up there, not just in one spot." She points to her diaphragm and sweeps her hand upwards motioning to her chest and her neck as if to clarify. "B just means that I have what they call B symptoms, which are night sweats and fevers. A real fun time, let me tell," she smirks.

Regina doesn't smile. If that's supposed to be funny, well, it really isn't. Although, she does feel a strange sense of relief at knowing that the disease has not reached advanced stage. That must be a good sign – even if the curse probably guarantees that she'll live for eternity. "And what sort of treatment are you receiving?"

"Chemo. Lots and lots of chemo," Lila answers, sounding unimpressed with that fact. "The kind I'm getting is called ABVD, or, what I like to call the fake alphabet. Poor C got the shaft. I don't know what it ever did to deserve that," she feigns seriousness.

Regina shakes her head, unable to keep a small smile from crossing her lips. For a moment she can't help but picture a different time and place, a place where this girl had a full head of hair – the alphabet comment just feels like pure Rapunzel, she always was funny. Regina pushes those thoughts out of her head. "And receiving this treatment? How would you rate the hospital?"

Lila seems to contemplate the question a minute, tapping her fingers against her leg while she thinks. "I think the hospital is pretty good. Slow as molasses sometimes but that's okay. It's not like I'm in a rush for them to start pumping nasty drugs into me anyway." She taps her fingers some more. "I really like my oncologist. Even though he's busy, he always takes time to make sure I'm doing okay and stuff. He's great at helping me manage the side effects too. I swear I have enough different drugs at home, I could probably open a pharmacy…if that wasn't like illegal, I mean," she chuckles nervously, clearly unsure if it's obvious that she's kidding. She pauses a minute and then adds, "oh and the hospital is great at always making sure a volunteer brings me home after I'm done. I really appreciate that. Right after chemo I'm too tired to walk home and way too out of it to drive."

Regina listens intently while Lila talks. When she mentions that a volunteer brings her home, Regina get curious. "Your family doesn't take you?" She can't stop herself from asking the question. She wonders if King Marcus and Queen Amelia are her parents here in Storybrooke.

"Nah, it's just me," Lila shrugs. "My parents are…" she frowns as if she can't really figure out the answer, "I…I'm not sure."

"Ah…" Regina tries to stop Lila before she can ponder on it too much longer. Clearly this is one of the effects of the curse. "…and your friends?"

Lila shrugs, suddenly looking even more exhausted than she already does. "I don't like to bother people." She looks out the window, getting a faraway look on her face.

As Regina watches the girl, she tries to suppress the pang of guilt she feels. The curse has not only given Rapunzel cancer but it has left her alone, has taken her away from her parents – again. Regina fights to keep thoughts of fixing things, thoughts of helping Lila, out of her brain. It's not her job to fix things. Besides, things don't need to be fixed. This is a curse. It is supposed to take away happy endings. That's how it works. She owes nothing to this girl, even if once upon a time Rapunzel had technically saved her life.

Regina knows that she should leave well enough alone, knows that spending any more time with Lila, focusing any more of her energy on her, will just lead to trouble and so, right then, she resolves that this will be the last time that she speaks with Lila.

When in two weeks she is at the hospital at the exact time that Lila finishes treatment and needs a ride home, well, she convinces herself that that's a coincidence. She convinces herself that it would have been suspicious to not offer to drive the younger girl home. She convinces herself, that there is no way her resolve is slipping.

When, in the ensuing months, driving Lila home from her chemo appointments becomes a part of Regina's routine and then when, as more months pass, seeing Lila becomes at least a weekly occurrence, well, then she convinces herself that it's part of a new plan. What this new plan is, she has no clue.

xxxxxx


	4. Part 3: Where will they find you, FTL

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 3 – Fairy Tale Land**

_Where will they find you_

Marcus becomes King of Corona on his sixteenth birthday. Sixteenth birthdays and coronations are supposed to be joyous celebrations, however, Marcus' sixteenth birthday, the day he becomes king, is distinctly void of happiness or any kind of real celebration. Instead, it's a solemn day in the kingdom, a solemn day for Marcus. Becoming king in the wake of his parent's deaths, becoming king at the age of sixteen, becoming responsible for an entire kingdom at such a young age, well, that is not how he thought his life would go.

He wasn't supposed to become king until he was ready and, when he did, his father was supposed to be there to guide him. More importantly, when he became king, the people of Corona were supposed to want him to be king, they were supposed to have utmost confidence in him, they were supposed to know that he could lead them, they were supposed to trust him. Instead, on the day of his coronation, on the day of his sixteenth birthday, all he sees in the faces of the people of Corona is sadness and fear. The tragic accidental death of the King and Queen days earlier is only one of a series of misfortunes that have befallen Corona over the last several years and, with power being thrust upon the shoulders of a sixteen year old, the people are certain that the kingdom will continue to falter. The people of Corona are certain that the death of the King and Queen will mark the beginning of the end of Corona. Marcus, however, defies all expectations, even his own. Under his watch, Corona not only survives but begins to thrive again.

Marcus' father once told him that some people are born into greatness and some people have greatness thrust upon them. As it turns out, for Marcus, both of those statements apply. Against all odds, by the time he turns twenty-one, Marcus has become one of the most beloved kings in all of Fairy Tale Land.

xxxxxx

Marcus marries the love of his life, Amelia, on his twenty-first birthday. It's a joyous occasion, and the entire kingdom celebrates the way such events are supposed to be celebrated. It's a happy day in the kingdom, a happy day for Marcus.

xxxxxx

King Marcus and Queen Amelia have been married only eight months when Amelia informs Marcus of the wondrous news. They are going to have a baby. The entire kingdom is elated.

Amelia is only five months pregnant when she falls ill. The royal doctor is certain that neither she, nor the baby, will survive. Marcus, however, refuses to accept that as an answer. Amelia is his true love and he will stop at nothing to keep her by his side. Besides, he has, after all, defied odds in the past and he has a plan.

Marcus remembers a tale of a magical healing flower that exists somewhere in Corona, it's a tale his mother told him when he was a child. He spends the next month doing nothing but searching for this flower. His entire army, as well as the majority of the people of the kingdom, search too. Although, as time passes and interest in the search dwindles, it is clear that few people believe that he will find this flower or even that the flower exists. Marcus, however, refuses to give up and he eventually finds the flower high in the hills surrounding Corona. It is a solitary golden yellow flower and as he plucks it from the ground he has to fight back the tears of relief and hope that come to his eyes.

Marcus holds the flower in his hand the entire ride back to the castle, refusing to let it out of his sight. Once there, the royal doctor wastes no time mixing it into a remedy for Amelia. The results are almost instantaneous. For the second time in his life, Marcus has defies everyone's expectation. He saves his wife and unborn child.

Three months later, when his wife is holding their beautiful baby in her arms, Marcus is sure that he has never been so happy in his entire life.

The baby is a girl and they name her Rapunzel. She has her father's green eyes and a full head of beautiful golden blonde hair. Staring down at his baby, Marcus can't help but think that her hair is the exact same shade of yellow as the flower he plucked from the hilltop.

xxxxxx

Rapunzel's hair grows quickly. So quickly, in fact, that her parents are mystified and alarmed by how quickly it grows. They are worried that something is wrong with their baby but the royal doctor continues to report that she's the picture of health.

When, by six months, Rapunzel's hair is a foot long, Amelia tells Marcus that enough is enough – it is time to cut the baby's hair. She brings out the scissors, determined to do it right then. With Marcus holding Rapunzel still in his lap, Amelia snips the first lock, somehow managing to cut her finger, drawing blood, in the process. It is then that two strange things happen. First, the lock of hair that she's cut turns brown. Second, and even stranger, Rapunzel's hair starts to glow bright and the cut on Amelia's finger disappears as if it had never even been there.

Marcus and Amelia meet each other's gazes, staring at each other in awe for a moment before they look back down at their daughter. Clearly, their daughter, their Rapunzel is special. Magical.

They don't try to cut Rapunzel's hair again after that and it continues to grow at an alarmingly quick rate. By her second birthday it is already eight feet long.

xxxxxx

At the age of fifteen, there are very few things that Regina likes more than horseback riding. She especially likes to ride on the days when she needs to clear her head. Today is one of those days. This morning she had a fight with her mother and the harsh remarks, her mother's disapproval, are fresh in her mind. She wishes she knew how to make her mother happy, wishes she knew how to be the daughter that her mother wants. Those, things, however, don't seem possible, so, for now, all she wishes is to forget everything for at least a moment.

She's riding fast with little regard for her surroundings. She knows that if she can get going fast enough all of her thoughts might just disappear. As she races through the forest, suddenly something startles her stead and then everything is out of control. Their moving incredibly fast now but it's not the wonderful free-feeling fast that she'd been aiming for, it's a sense of impending doom kind of speed.

As Regina is flung forward and almost out of her saddle, her stead gallops right out of the forest and into a carriage path. Regina can't do anything to stop what happens next and, in what feels like sickly horrifying slow motion, they careen into some sort of caravan of horses and buggies. She goes flying through the air, landing in a broken heap in the middle of the pathway. A couple of horses manage to avoid her but more than one tramples over her before the caravan manages to stop itself.

Laying there in the middle of the pathway, broken and bloody and in pain, she forgets about her fight with her mother that morning, she forgets about all of the fights before that one, she forgets that she can't stand her mother's magic. Laying there she just wants someone to go get her mother, fast. Her mother would be able to fix this. Magic could surely fix this.

People are approaching her and she opens her mouth, wanting to tell them that she needs her mother, but when she tries to speak no words come out. She can feel hands on her and someone trying to talk to her but she can't focus on what is being said. Her eyes blink closed and stay closed for longer periods of time and she knows that it doesn't matter, even if she could figure out how to form words, there's no way they will get her mother in time. There's no way that she will survive.

Her eyes blink open one more time. There are more people approaching her and she swears that one of them is a toddler with hair longer than she is tall. Clearly, she has started to hallucinate. Then, something is glowing, she's sure of it, and suddenly she feels so warm. She always imagined that dying would feel cold, not like this at all.

Moments pass and slowly Regina begins to realize that the pain is slipping away. She is sure that that must mean that she is really dying now. More moments pass, however, and she can still feel the dirt beneath her, is still sure that she is alive, although now the pain is completely gone. Slowly, she blinks her eyes back open, she is staring into the face of a toddler, a little girl no more than two, who, unimaginably, has hair that must be almost ten feet long.

Rapunzel pats Regina's face and then pats Regina's hair, somewhat clumsily. "Pretty," she smiles.

Regina scrunches her face up in confusion. Is she dead? Is she hallucinating? She has no clue what is happening. She smiles hesitantly back at the toddler. "Uh…thank you."

Rapunzel moves in to pat Regina's hair again but Amelia scoops her up before her hand can connect. "Let's let the young lady have some breathing room, missy." She tickles her daughter's belly and the child giggles. Amelia hands Rapunzel off to Marcus, who is standing beside her, and she kneels in closer to Regina. "Hello dear, my name is Amelia, that there is my husband Marcus and my daughter Rapunzel," she points to the two. "You've had an accident but you're going to be just fine."

"What?" Regina still can't really process what is happening. She tries to sit up but finds that she's having a hard time.

Amelia immediately reaches down to help her. Her touch is gentle and soothing and Regina can't help but feel safe with her. Amelia helps Regina stand up and brings her over to sit on the edge of the carriage. Marcus follows with Rapunzel still in his arms.

"Here dear have a seat. We'll get you something to drink. Then I'll answer your questions, I'm sure you have some." Amelia motions to one of the soldiers to bring her some water.

When the soldier brings the water over, Regina notices that he is from a royal guard, although not the royal guard of her kingdom. She glances at the rest of the soldiers and realizes that they are all part of a royal guard. She glances at the woman sitting beside her and the man standing with the toddler and suddenly is even more curious about who these people are.

Amelia notices the curiosity in the teenager's face and answers before the question is asked. "We're the King and Queen of Corona, dear."

"Oh," Regina is not sure what she is supposed to say to that. Suddenly she wonders if she should even ask any of the millions of questions that are careening through her brain. It may not be polite. She wonders what her mother will say when she finds out about all of this.

"It's okay," Amelia smiles gently, running her hand over Regina's arm in a soothing gesture. "You can ask your questions. What's just happened is…unusual. You must be curious."

Regina nods slowly. "What…what did happen?"

"Rapunzel is…" Amelia glances over at her daughter, a look of pure love washing over her face. "Rapunzel is special. Her hair has the power to heal. That's what she did for you."

Regina glances at the child, still mystified by her peculiarly long hair. This child has just saved her life, has just saved her life because her hair is magical, it seems almost impossible. "I…thank you."

"There's no need to thank us. We were just in the right place at the right time. Or perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time. If we hadn't been on route to King Leopold's palace then we would not have even been here and there would have been no one for you to run into and get hurt in the first place." Marcus speaks up for the first time.

Regina watches him carefully while he speaks. For some reason she expects him to chastises her for letting her stead run wild across the road. After all, someone besides her could have gotten hurt but when he does nothing of the sort, she nearly sighs with relief. This man is clearly kind and fair just like King Leopold is and she knows that she cannot let him accept any blame in the matter, not just because he is a king and her mother would be beside herself if she knew that Regina didn't say something. "Or I may have had the accident anyway, my stead was out of control. I owe my life to you, to your daughter. Thank you."

Marcus nods. "All right then, we will graciously accept your thanks. Won't we Rapunzel?" He bounces the princess in his arms, tickling her a bit and she giggles.

Regina smiles at the sight. She glances back over at Amelia who is looking adoringly at her husband and child. "So you are going to visit King Leopold and the Queen?" Regina asks, curiously. Word throughout the kingdom is that the Queen is not well and that she surely won't survive much longer. No magic has managed to save her.

Amelia looks at Regina. "A visit of sorts. Rapunzel…well Leopold hopes she'll be able to help his wife." She looks back at her daughter and her husband. "We hope so too." Clearly the thought of a mother dying and leaving behind her husband and child pains Amelia.

"Indeed," Marcus agrees, also seeming to be pained by the thought of the Queen dying.

Marcus sets Rapunzel down and takes her hand. While Amelia and Regina continue to talk, he walks Rapunzel away. She's two and she becomes restless with conversation easily and, truthfully, so does he.

"Pretty," Rapunzel says, pointing at a purple flowered bush on the side of the road.

"They are pretty Rapunzel, just like you my little flower." Marcus says leading her closer. He lets go of her hand, pulling a knife out of his belt and reaching forward to cut a flower off of the bush. He crouches down and hands the flower to her. "It's a lilac."

Rapunzel grins at her father, staring at the flower in awe.

"See how pretty it smells?" Marcus leans in closer to the flower, exaggerating smelling it to show her how it's done.

Rapunzel giggles as she watches her father but she copies him, bringing her nose closer to the flower and breathing in deep. Her eyes widen at the sent. "Mmmm, pretty, daddy," she smiles brightly at him again.

Rapunzel smells the flower again before toddling over to where Regina is still sitting with Amelia. She walks past her mother and stops in front of Regina. She looks up at the stranger whose life she has just saved and then she hands her the flower. "Lilalock."

"Lilac," Amelia corrects automatically, smiling affectionately and reaching over to run her hand over her daughter's head.

Regina stares at the little girl a second before taking the flower. "Thank you."

"Pretty," Rapunzel tells her, "smell." She leans in to show Regina how you smell, pushing her little nose right into the flower.

Regina smiles at the child before leaning in and smelling the flower herself. "Yes, very pretty."

Rapunzel grins, seeming happy to have showed her discovery to this new person. She moves over and climbs onto her mother's lap, yawning and snuggling closer.

Amelia rubs her back soothingly. "Are you tired darling?"

"No," Rapunzel mumbles but her eyelids are already closing.

Amelia looks over at Regina, motioning down to her almost sleeping daughter, "I think healing tires her out."

Regina nods, unsure of what to say. Should she apologize for needing to be healed?

Sensing the girl's hesitancy, Amelia smiles at her. She motions to the lilac that Regina is still holding. "I think someone likes you."

Regina blushes. "She just saved my life, I think I should be the one giving her flowers."

xxxxxx

King Marcus and Queen Amelia are insistent that Regina not return home by herself. They send two soldiers with her to ensure that she is delivered to her parent's house safely.

When the soldiers explain that there was a small accident and that the King and the Queen of Corona wanted to make sure that Regina made it home safely, her mother and father are beside themselves. They quickly thank the soldiers and usher Regina inside.

Once she is inside, Cora immediately turns to Regina. "See, this is why I do not want you to ride out in the forest. What if you had injured the King and the Queen? Or yourself? What then?"

Regina grimaces, glancing down at her hands. She considers not saying anything but she knows that it will only be worse if Cora finds out some other way. "I…I was injured."

Henry and Cora both look momentarily concerned but it is clear by looking at Regina that nothing is wrong now. Henry, still looking concerned, is the one who asks the question. "What happened?"

Regina takes a deep breath before explaining, "King Marcus and Queen Amelia's daughter, Rapunzel, she saved me. She healed me."

"A child healed you?" Cora suddenly seems very interested in what Regina is saying.

"Her hair, it's magic, it has healing powers," Regina clarifies.

"Hmm…" Cora seems to think about this information a minute, before slowly smiling. "Well isn't that a wonderful gift to have."

"It really is mother," Regina smiles at her. "They're bringing Rapunzel to King Leopold's palace, for the Queen, to heal her. Isn't that wonderful? I think the Queen will survive."

"It is most certainly wonderful news. If you're right, the Kingdom will be celebrating soon," Henry agrees, squeezing his daughter's shoulder.

Regina smiles at her father, not noticing the frown that crosses Cora's face.

xxxxxx

Two days later Regina wakes up to find her father speaking with a soldier. The soldier is just leaving when she comes into the kitchen.

"Father?" she questions. "What was that about?"

"You know that little girl? The one who healed you?" Henry starts, eyeing is daughter carefully.

"Rapunzel?" Regina asks, suddenly even more curious.

"Yes," Henry nods, his face turning solemn. "She's missing. Kidnapped".

"What? How?" Regina is completely shocked by the news. She feels her stomach clenches in pain for King Marcus and Queen Amelia. They had seemed so happy a few days ago and she couldn't imagine the sort of pain they must be feeling now.

Henry grimaces, clearly bothered by the news as well. "King Marcus and Queen Amelia's caravan was ambushed on route to King Leopold's palace two nights ago. No one was killed but the baby is missing. She's vanished without a trace."

xxxxxx


	5. Part 4: Trying to reach out, Story

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 4 – Storybrooke**

Regina

_Trying to reach out_

In Storybrooke, Regina has known Lila nearly a year when one Saturday she finds herself standing in front of the girl's apartment door. She hasn't called ahead and the fact that she feels she can just show up here unannounced tells volumes about her friendship with Lila. Then again, Regina refuses to even call Lila her friend, so, as far as she's concerned, she's simply here because she has nothing better to do today and, besides, it's good for her reputation for her to be seen out and about.

Balancing a Tupperware container in her left hand she knocks on the apartment door with her right hand. She waits a minute, then another minute and when no one comes to the door she knocks again. She's pretty sure that Lila is home because she saw her car in the parking lot and it's Saturday so she shouldn't be at the hospital. When another minute passes and there's still no answer she gets frustrated and tries the handle. The knob turns, so unless Lila forgot to lock the door, she's definitely home.

"Lila?" Regina calls, pushing the door open and walking into the girl's apartment.

When her search of the apartment initially yields no result, she starts to think that maybe Lila did just forget to lock the door. Regina is already preparing a whole lecture on the importance of locking your door when you leave when she finally finds Lila in the bathroom. She's lying on the floor curled up in a ball and the sight stops Regina dead in her tracks. "Lila?" She tries to keep the concern out of her voice. An attempt that she refuses to admit to herself is unsuccessful.

Sometimes the only thing Regina can picture when she's looking at Lila is Rapunzel. The Rapunzel with her impossibly long hair cut short and a smile on her face, the Rapunzel who, despite everything, had never hated her, had still insisted on calling her friend even when it became clear that they really couldn't be friends any longer. Right now, however, with Lila curled up on the bathroom floor, it's a toddler with a lilac in her hand that Regina pictures, the innocent child who Regina wants nothing more than to protect from every horrible thing that is about to happen to her.

"Mmm…" Lila sits up grimacing when she does. She moves so that her back is resting against the bathtub and she draws her knees to her chest. "I was coming to the door, I swear," her voice is soft and distant. She closes her eyes and rests her forehead on her knees.

"What's wrong?" Regina frowns. Lila has the sickly pale look she sometimes gets, although, Regina has never seen her look quite so sick before.

Lila lifts her head from her knees and looks at Regina. "I'm fine."

Regina purses her lips at the answer. Clearly, it's a lie. "What. Is. Wrong." She pronounces each word distinctly and forcibly, she won't be accepting any of this 'I'm fine' business.

Lila continues to stare at her for moment as if she's wondering how she can get away with not saying anything but eventually she sighs. "I was dizzy and nauseous. I didn't want to puke. Or pass out. Okay?" The 'okay' is clearly a place holder for 'are you satisfied?'

No, not okay, Regina thinks. Lila is so stubborn, it drives her crazy. In fact, sometimes it drives her so crazy that she has half a mind to just stop associating with the younger girl. Of course, at this point she's past thinking she actually will stop seeing Lila, the girl is like a retched virus and she just can't seem to shake her. "And you're lying on the bathroom floor because?" Regina raises an eyebrow in response. She is determined to get the entire explanation and she always gets what she wants even if she lets Lila think otherwise sometimes.

Lila looks like she wants to protest but instead she just shrugs, looking down at her feet, clearly feeling like a chastised child. "The fetal position helps and my bed was too far, I wouldn't have made it. I was just waiting it out and then I was gonna get up, I swear."

Regina pinches the bridge of her nose. She seriously has no clue what goes through that girl's mind most of the time. "And what if it didn't pass? You should have called someone."

Lila looks up again. "Do you see a phone in this bathroom?" She grumbles sarcastically but her tone is less annoyed and more teasing.

"Well maybe you should have one installed," Regina says, keeping her tone serious. She wants the final word on the matter.

"Ya, I'll get on that," Lila rolls her eyes. When Regina just narrows her eyes in response, Lila adds, softly, "Seriously Regina, it happens, it passes. I'm used to it. I'm already feeling a bit better."

Regina softens her face a bit, realizing that her best glare may not be the most appropriate face to be giving at the moment. After all, Lila is clearly sick. The fact that she is apparently _this_ sick often enough for her to be used to it surprises Regina. Sure she knew that Lila was sick, obviously the girl has cancer, but she hadn't realized that it was _this_ bad. In the nearly entire year that she's known Lila, every time Regina has seen her, she's at least been up and about, at least has had a smile on her face. The knowledge that sometimes Lila is so sick that she has to lie on bathroom floors, well, it makes Regina feel something that she thinks might be guilt, even though she is pretty sure she doesn't know how to feel guilty. "You don't look like you're feeling better."

"Geesh, way to make a girl feel good about herself," Lila laughs lightly but she grimaces and stops.

"What's wrong now?" Regina frowns again.

Lila shrugs nonchalantly. "Laughing upsets the stomach, so quit making me laugh." She smirks but when Regina doesn't even smile at the remark, Lila eyes her suspiciously. "You're kind of uptight, you know."

"I am nothing of the sort," Regina says sharply. It may be the truth but there is absolutely no way Regina would ever admit to it. She can't believe that Lila would even suggest it. Clearly she hasn't done a good enough job of making this girl afraid of her. It's something that she really needs to work on. However, looking down at Lila who's still sitting with her knees drawn to her chest and whose bald head and lack of eyebrows and eyelashes are even more pronounced in the harsh bathroom lighting, Regina quickly decides that she'll just work on it some other day. She convinces herself that 'some other day' isn't just code for 'never'.

"Sure," Lila smiles brightly at her as if trying to appease her. "Now…do you think you could help a girl up?"

Regina nods, setting the container she's been holding down on the bathroom counter before leaning over to help Lila stand up. Lila sways slightly and Regina's steadies her. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Ya, I just need to go sit on the couch," Lila nods, biting the inside of her lip as if standing requires all of her focus.

"Right," Regina nods again. Reaching back and grabbing her container before offering Lila her arm. "Let me help."

"Nah, I've got this," Lila shrugs away from her and makes a beeline, albeit a somewhat unsteady one, for the living area, where she quickly takes a seat on the couch.

Regina can do nothing but follow behind the girl. She once again thinks about how stubborn Lila is and this time she mentions it. "You really should work on being less stubborn, Ms. Lock." These days she usually calls Lila by her given name, well, her given Storybrooke name, but every once in a while she likes to slip back into using Ms. Lock – especially in times like these, when she can feel herself getting closer to Lila.

"I'll get on that, right after I get a phone installed in my bathroom, _Madam Mayor_." Lila replies sarcastically, obviously passed the point that she feels the need to tell Regina to call her Lila. Instead, as she often does when Regina calls her Ms. Lock, she returns the favour, turning the whole thing into a joke.

"I'm sure you will," Regina answers, resisting the sudden urge she has to roll her eyes. Lila isn't the only one who knows how to be sarcastic.

Lila just shakes her head, a grin spreading across her face. She tucks her legs up under her and reaches for the throw laying on the back of the couch, pulling it around herself. She motions to the empty seat on the couch, "you gonna just stand there awkwardly all day or are you going to sit down?"

"I do not stand awkwardly," Regina answer indignantly but she does take a seat, although it's on the recliner and not on the couch.

"No, I guess you don't really," Lila agrees, truthfully. "So…" she eyes the container on Regina's lap, "what do you have there?"

"This?" Regina holds the container up. "It's applesauce. I made a batch and I realized that there was too much for me to eat. I didn't want it to go bad." There is no way that she is going to admit that she actually made the applesauce specifically for Lila. The truth is that when she was driving Lila home from her chemo appointment on Wednesday Lila had mentioned that chemo makes her mouth sore and that it's hard for her to find things to eat. Applesauce seemed like it would be good for her sore mouth.

"Awesome. Thanks," Lila smiles at her, seeming genuinely happy about the applesauce.

"Like I said, really you're helping me out by taking some. Letting food go bad is wasteful." Regina feels the need to reiterate to Lila that she hasn't done anything for her. She doesn't want Lila to get the wrong idea.

Lila shrugs. "Ya but still it probably means I'll actually eat something today. So thumbs up."

Regina's eyes widen in surprise. "You weren't going to eat today?"

Lila shakes her head. "I'm sure I would have eaten _something_. I was kidding, mostly."

Regina isn't particularly assured by this answer. "Mostly?"

"It's the Saturday post chemo. It's one of my worst days. I don't like food on the worst days. It's no big deal." Lila tries to brush it off.

"No big deal." Regina repeats Lila's last words incredulously. Sometimes Regina wonders how Lila can be so nonchalant about so many things. She doesn't understand how this girl hasn't been reduced to nothing but bitterness by now over the fate she's been dealt. Then again, considering the way Rapunzel had been back in their land, maybe it isn't so surprising.

Lila shrugs, smiling at Regina in assurance. "I mean, seriously, I've got a friend who brought me applesauce. What more does a girl need?"

"Right," Regina runs her hands through her hair and offers Lila a tight lipped smiled. Friend, Regina doesn't really like the word but she doesn't correct Lila.

xxxxxx


	6. Part 5: Trying to see through, Story

**A/N:** So, I just wanted to take a quick sec to thank everyone for reading. For the first time, this part includes a character other than Regina and Lila in Storybrooke. It's a minor role in this part but from now on you should expect all the usuals to start making appearances. I figure there will be one or two more Storybrooke parts before Emma shows up and then, well, everything will be changing. If all goes according to plan, the next part should be back in Fairy Tale Land where time will have moved forward some and you just may figure out what exactly happened to Rapunzel ;)

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 5 – Storybrooke**

Lila

_Trying to see through_

Lila parks her car a block away from her destination and gets out. It's a nice day, warm enough to not need a jacket or her tuque. She shoves her hands in the pockets of her jeans as she strolls slowly down the street, absorbing the sun on her way to Granny's Dinner, where she's meeting Regina for breakfast.

It's been twelve days since her last chemo treatment and it's two days until her next, so, it's one of her good days. She's feeling decent, or at least as decent as she ever feels. Truthfully, it seems like she's been in treatment forever and she honestly forgets what it's like to actually feel good. She forgets what it feels like to be able to walk a block and not be out of breath, to eat food and actually enjoy it, to sleep twelve hours and not still be tired, to look in the mirror and not expect a cancer patient to be staring back at her. She wonders when it happened, when she forgot what it feels like to _not_ be a cancer patient, when her life slipped into an endless loop of hospital appointments and trips to the pharmacy, the grocery store, or Regina's house. She honestly can't remember the last time she went anywhere but those four places. For that reason, when Regina had called and asked if she wanted to meet for breakfast this morning, she was both surprised and elated. It feels great to get out of her apartment, to do something out of her normal routine.

When she steps inside Granny's Dinner she glances around, it seems like a nice place. Maybe she'll have to start coming here regularly. It really would be nice to get out more.

She searches for Regina but doesn't find her. She must be early because Regina is never late. She hesitates in the entranceway unsure of what she should do, take a seat or wait for Regina.

"Hi can I help you?" A waitress with red streaks in her hair and what Lila thinks cannot be a standard issue uniform approaches her.

Lila can feel the other girl staring, or more like trying not to stare, at her bald head. She's noticed that people tend to be confused by the fact that she's a young adult and a cancer patient. People always seem to be trying to figure out if her lack of hair is a fashion statement or something else, something worse. Of course, the lack of eyebrows and eyelashes tends to make it clear what category she falls into. She's used to the looks by now, although, that doesn't keep them from being awkward.

She runs her hand over her head, "it saves me a ton on hair products."

"Oh…I…I wasn't…" The waitress stammers, clearly shocked that Lila has called her out.

Lila shrugs, smiling brightly at the girl. "I know. It's okay. I was just teasing. I find it breaks the ice. I'm Lila by the way." There's no sense getting upset at people for being curious and sarcasm and joking are her strategies to deal with it. Actually, sarcasm and joking are her strategies for dealing with pretty much everything.

"Well hello Lila, I'm Ruby." The waitress visibly relaxes when Lila doesn't yell at her for staring and she returns the smile. "I'm pretty good with faces and I don't believe I've ever seen you here before."

"You mean you don't remember a bald twenty-five year old?" Lila teases, grinning again, she really can't help herself, although, she feels kind of bad when Ruby looks flustered again.

Ruby gets over the shock more quickly this time, a smile crossing her face again. "You would be pretty easy to remember I reckon."

"Indeed," Lila agrees.

"So, did you want to take a seat? I can get you a menu." Ruby motions to the available booths and tables.

"Actually, I'm waiting for someone…" Lila starts just as Regina steps into the dinner, "speak of the devil."

"You wouldn't be calling me the devil now would you dear?" Regina raises one eyebrow but smiles at Lila. "I resent that accusation."

"I only speak the truth," Lila chuckles, clearly kidding. Regina might think she's some badass and she certainly tries hard to personify that but Lila really doesn't think that that's who she truly is. However, looking at Ruby's startled expression at seeing the mayor it's clear that she, like most of the townspeople that Lila has come across, is scared of or at least intimidated by Regina.

Lila can feel Ruby staring at her again but this time she knows that it has nothing to do with her baldness, clearly the waitress is wondering why she's having breakfast with the mayor.

Regina, who looks highly unimpressed with the way Ruby is looking at Lila, speaks coolly, "I guess we will just be seating ourselves then."

"Oh, right," Ruby looks away from Lila. "Sit wherever you want."

Regina leads the way to a vacant booth and Lila is happy with the selection. It's nice to be sitting by a window with the sun shining in.

Ruby follows them to the table and sets menus down in front of them. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"I'll have a coffee," Regina tells her, her tone still cool.

"Okay," Ruby purses her lips and glances at Lila, "and for you?"

Lila smiles at the girl, trying to make her feel better. She wants to tell her that that's just the way Regina talks, she doesn't mean anything by it. Instead she says, "Just water for me, please. Oh but can you make sure there's no lemon in it or on the glass?"

"Sure," Ruby nods, clearly curious about the request but not asking. "I'll be right back with that and to get your orders."

Regina is eyeing Lila curiously too. She doesn't say anything just raises an eyebrow.

"Someone at the hospital told me not to have lemon at restaurants. No way to know if they washed the outside good enough," Lila explains, shrugging. It's probably no big deal but she figures she ought to be careful.

Regina nods slowly before glancing back at her menu.

Lila reads the menu carefully, which reminds her why she really doesn't get out much. It's hard to find something that sounds appealing and that doesn't include something that she's not supposed to be eating. She really wishes that she liked food more, although, at least it's one of her good days, so she's actually sort of hungry.

It isn't long before Ruby is back with the drinks. Sliding them onto the table, she pulls out her notepad. "Have you decided?"

"I'll have the eggs benedict," Regina says, handing Ruby her menu.

Lila glances at the menu one more time, "pancakes," she settles on, also handing Ruby her menu.

"Great, it won't be long," Ruby says, jotting the orders down and walking away.

Lila takes a sip of her water. It's nice to be far enough out from her last chemo treatment to not have water taste absolutely horrible. For some reason, chemo makes liquid, especially water, taste terrible, which makes it difficult to keep from getting dehydrated. By now, she's heard the 'you need to drink more' lecture from her oncologist enough times that she has it memorized.

"So, this was a great idea," Lila tells Regina.

"Well, I didn't feel like cooking breakfast this morning and going out to eat by myself seemed pointless." Regina explains.

The explanation makes Lila want to laugh. Regina can never admit that she just wants to spend time with her. It's always amusing the hearing the reasons she comes up with when they get together. "Maybe you should not feel like cooking breakfast more often. It's great to get out of my apartment."

"We'll see," Regina answers vaguely before taking a sip of her coffee.

Lila drums her hands against the table top. "So…what you up to today?"

Regina gives her a strange look. "I'm going to work after this. It's Monday."

Lila laughs, "oops. I guess I kind forgot about that thing that regular people do. Work," She can't help the sigh that comes out at the word. She wishes she was well enough to work. She feels useless a lot of the time.

Regina looks unsure of what to say but she is saved from answering when Ruby comes over with their orders.

Ruby slides their breakfast plates in front of them and Lila stares down at her stack of pancakes, topped with strawberries and raspberries.

"Your menu didn't say that there was fruit on the pancakes," Regina addresses Ruby, motioning to Lila's plate.

Lila looks up at Regina, curious about what she's getting at. She doesn't have to wait long to find out because Regina continues.

"You're going to need to take that back and bring her one without fruit on it. And don't just take the fruit off these ones. You need to make fresh pancakes." She doesn't offer an explanation as to why the plate needs to be replaced but her tone is icy and it offers no room for debate.

Ruby's eyes widen and she quickly reaches and grabs Lila's plate.

Lila frowns while Regina rants, and though she has an idea of what why there might be a reason to freak out about the fruit on her pancakes, she's still confused about why _Regina_ is freaking out. When Ruby listens to what Regina says and grabs the plate, Lila turns her attention to the waitress. "Ruby, don't listen to her. It's fine. Just give me back the plate." She smiles sweetly and adds, "Please."

Ruby looks back and forth between Lila and Regina unsure of what to do. She ends up doing nothing, just continuing to stand there holding the plate.

"Uh-uh, no way," Regina shakes her head, turning her attention from the waitress to Lila. "I read the guideline sheet from your oncologist, the one you keep stashed under the pile of junk in your kitchen drawer." She fixes Lila with an 'I've caught you' look. "You're supposed to be careful with the things you eat. That means no fruits that are hard to wash. Strawberries and raspberries are a definite no and they're touching everything on your plate. Do you want to get sick?"

"You've been riffling through my drawers?" Lila smirks amused before calmly adding, "Seriously, a little hard to wash fruit is not going to kill me." She's been friends with Regina long enough to except outbursts like this one. It really doesn't bother her and, actually, she usually finds it highly amusing. Sometimes she caves into whatever ridiculous thing Regina is telling her to do just to appease her but right now she would really rather just eat her breakfast. Besides, she feels bad for Ruby. So much for her initial plan to come here more often – Ruby would probably never want to serve her again.

"We wash our fruit thoroughly," Ruby pipes up.

"It's not about whether or not you wash your fruit dear," Regina glares at the waitress, clearly implying that she should mind her own business, before she turns her attention back to Lila. "And you, you should know better."

Lila shakes her head, still keeping her tone neutral and non-confrontational. "Regina, the sheet you're talking about, it's guidelines for following a neutropenic diet. I'm getting growth factor shots to boost my white blood cell counts, there's no way I'm neutropenic right now, so I don't need to follow it. Besides, fruit isn't like raw meat or old food. I'm not dumb. I wouldn't do something that I thought would make me sick. Against popular belief, I prefer to spend as little time as possible in the hospital."

Regina listens intently to what Lila is saying, pinching the bridge of her nose when she finishes, as if this whole situation is giving her a headache. She waves her hand indifferently at Ruby. "Fine, give her back her plate." She waits until Ruby sets the plate back down in front of Lila and then she adds, "But if she gets sick, I'm holding you responsible."

Lila suddenly has to suppress the urge to laugh. Regina just takes everything so seriously. She wonders if she ever realizes how silly she sounds. Ruby doesn't look like she finds it quite so funny though, so Lila smiles at her in reassurance. "Don't worry, if I get sick, which I won't, I'll make sure she takes it out on me, not you." The truth is she highly doubts Regina would ever actually take anything out on her. At least, she hasn't in all of the time she's known her.

"I really can make you new ones. I wouldn't…I would feel bad if you got sick," Ruby says, looking worried for this girl she's just met.

"Thanks Ruby but, really, it's okay. Promise," Lila tells her.

Ruby hesitates another second but finally she nods and turns and walks away.

When Ruby is finally out of sight, Lila pushes the strawberries and raspberries off the pancakes and to the side of her plate before pouring the syrup over the top. She figures it's probably best if she doesn't actually eat the fruit – mostly because she doesn't want Regina to have a stroke but also because Regina isn't completely wrong about the piece of paper in her kitchen junk drawer. The way Lila sees it is that the Neulasta shots she gets pretty much eliminate the chance of neutropenia and, so, the risk of her being unable to fight off an infection if she got one, say from some hard to wash fruit, is probably pretty low. Even with that though, it's still a good idea to be careful.

When Lila looks up from her plate she sees that Regina has been watching her push the fruit away and that there's a small smile on the other woman's face. Lila smiles back at her, "You're not mad are you?"

Regina frowns and for a second Lila thinks she's going to say that she _is_ mad.

"No I'm not mad," Regina finally says, her tone filled with what seems like maybe annoyance, although the annoyance doesn't seem to be directed at Lila specifically and Lila can't really put her finger on what it is directed at.

"Good," Lila smiles again. Cutting up her pancakes and taking a bite. "Because I was actually kind of hungry and I didn't want to wait for new ones."

Regina shakes her head, clearly amused by Lila's answer. "Patience is a virtue, you know. I think you should work on that," She informs her before taking a bite of her own food.

Lila laughs, "Yep, sure. Just like you're going to work on being less uptight, right?"

Regina glares at her then but it's not the kind of glare that Lila has noticed her give other people, not like the glare she'd given Ruby earlier. Her tone isn't nearly as harsh as the tone she uses with everyone else either. Actually, it's not even harsh at all. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not uptight? I'm sorry that I have to look out for your best interests all of the time because you're too nonchalant to take things like that," she motions to the pushed aside fruit on Lila's plate, "seriously."

Lila watches Regina a minute, taking another bite of her food and chewing slowly. "You know," she finally says, "Sometimes I think you think you're my mother or something." She delivers it as an off-hand remark because she knows it's the kind of comment that she has to tread lightly with. She's well aware that Regina is closed off emotionally and any mentions of friendship or feelings of any sort tend to send her high tailing it in the other direction. Conversations that start like this one usually end with Regina resorting to calling her Ms. Lock and then not speaking to her for a week. Even with all of those past failures, Lila is forever an optimist, and she continues to try. She's convinced that one day she'll crack through Regina's armour and figure out what actually goes on in that head of hers.

As she expects, Lila sees horror cross over Regina's face and she swears that she actually cringes at the word mother but what happens next surprises her.

"Well, if you would take everything a bit more seriously, then maybe I wouldn't have to act like your mother in situations like this," Regina tells her. "Besides, it's good practice for when I have my baby." She slides the last comment in between bites of her breakfast.

Lila chokes on her water when Regina says 'my baby'. She sputters for a minute, catching her breath and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Your baby? Are you…" Lila leans in closer to and whispers, "…are you pregnant?"

"Good lord, no." Regina shakes her head.

Lila feels relieved at the news. Not because Regina would make a bad mother but because she's pretty sure if Regina was pregnant it would make the baby Graham's and that relationship is far from healthy and definitely not the kind of relationship that should include a child. Those two really didn't need strings in their strange no-strings arrangements.

"So, what's with the 'my baby' then," Lila says not willing to let it go. Although, given that Regina brought it up, Lila's pretty sure that she doesn't want to let it go either.

"I've decided to adopt a baby," Regina quickly informs her. Her eyes searching Lila's, looking for something.

Lila has never seen Regina look nervous before but she swears that that's exactly what the dark haired woman is right now. "That's awesome," Lila grins, hoping that enthusiasm will reassure Regina. "I'm so happy for you."

"You are?" Regina seems genuinely unsure.

"Of course I'm sure," Lila answers right away, without hesitating.

The truth is, besides her, Regina doesn't have many friends. Sure there's Graham, her friends with benefits without the friends part, and Sidney, who Lila likes to teasingly call Regina's stalker, but, other than those two and maybe Mr. Gold, whose relationship with Regina Lila can never quite figure out, Lila's pretty sure that the mayor has no one else. It doesn't help that Lila isn't really the best friend to have. She tries to be a good friend but, given that she spends something like half of her time laid up recovering from chemo, she's pretty sure that she's not around as much as a good friend should be. She's positive that Regina is lonely and maybe a baby is exactly what she needs. She's also positive that Regina will make a good mother – the woman has helped her out enough that Lila knows that that's the truth, which begs the question of why Regina is uncertain. She goes ahead and asks, "Why would you doubt that?"

Regina doesn't say anything for a minute and for a second Lila thinks she's not going to answer but then she explains, "My mother…she wasn't the best at being a mother." Her tone changes, it's softer than usual, more hesitant. "What if I don't know how?"

When Regina talks about her mother, Lila gets the sense that she's holding something back but she doesn't push, instead addressing Regina's question. "Trust me," Lila tells her, reaching over and placing her hand on Regina's, something she wouldn't usually do, "you know how." She pulls her hand back before it freaks Regina out too much and then adds, "Demanding that breakfasts be taken back, making applesauce, driving to and from hospitals, lecturing..." Lila smirks at the last one. "You may not realize it but clearly you've already got it figured out."

"I…thanks." Regina genuinely seems thankful for Lila's reassurance. She picks up her coffee mug and takes a sip of the dark liquid.

"Besides, I'll be there to help. I'm gonna teach this kid _everything_ I know. What could possibly go wrong?" Lila grins, teasingly.

Regina raises an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound very reassuring, Ms. Lock."

And there it is, Ms. Lock. Lila just laughs. Some things never change.

xxxxxx


	7. Part 6: And no one's there, FTL

**A/N:** Just a warning that there's some minor Season 2 spoilers in this part.

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 6 – Fairy Tale Land**

_And no one's there_

Ten year old Rapunzel looks out the window of the tower where she has spent every moment of her life, or at least every moment of her life that she can remember. Today the sun is shining, there aren't any clouds in the sky, and she can see the castle on the hill in the distance clearly.

The grass below the tower is green and lush and she stares down at it longingly. The grass looks so much softer than the concrete floor of the tower and she wonders what it would feel like under her feet. For a minute she considers asking mother again about going down there – after all, it's not like she wants to go far, she just wants to touch the ground – but she quickly squashes the thought.

She rests her head against the windowsill and sighs. The truth is that she knows that asking her mother about venturing out of the tower will just make her angry. Mother always says that Rapunzel is ungrateful, that she doesn't appreciate the great lengths that she's gone to protect her from the people who want to hurt. Rapunzel tries not to be ungrateful, she really does, but sometimes it's hard. She gets lonely up here in the tower, especially because mother can't be here all of the time – she used to check in at least twice a day but, now that Rapunzel is getting older, sometimes multiple days will pass before she comes back.

Living in this tower is hardest on days like today, when the world out there looks so tempting and mother isn't here to remind her of the reasons why it's so important for her to stay inside. Of course, it's not like Rapunzel could leave even if she wanted to. There is no door to the tower – mother always uses magic to enter.

The lack of a door keeps Rapunzel inside the tower but, more importantly, it keeps everyone else, the world, out. Mother has told her countless times that it isn't safe for her out there in the world. Out there, there are people who want to hurt her, people who want to use her for her magic hair. Mother likes to point out the short lock of brown hair amongst Rapunzel's otherwise _very_ long golden blonde hair to remind her about the man who tried to steal her hair when she was just a baby – the man who might have killed her if mother hadn't stopped him. It was because of that incident that her mother brought her to this tower, to protect her, to keep something similar from ever happening again.

No one but mother ever comes here because she says that it isn't safe for anyone but her to know where Rapunzel is. So, Rapunzel spends her days here in the tower, mostly alone, looking off in the distance at the castle on the hill, wondering about the people who live there. She knows that today is a special day for the people in the castle – she knows this because her mother told her so. Mother told her that tonight there will be fireworks above the castle and that she can stay awake to watch them. Today there is going to be a wedding at the castle. Today her sister is getting married.

xxxxxx

The fireworks the night of Regina and King Leopold's wedding are spectacular and looking out the window at them, Rapunzel images how pretty her sister must be as a bride. Although, technically she's never actually met her sister, so she doesn't actually even know what she looks like.

That night she dreams of meeting her sister, of handing her a lilac, but in the dream she's not ten like she is now, she's really young, almost still a baby really. When she wakes up the next morning she feels strange but shrugs it off, deciding to clean the tower as a surprise for when her mother comes back.

She can't wait to hear all about the wedding but her mother doesn't come back to the tower that day. Her mother doesn't come to the tower the next day either, or the day after that.

On day five, Rapunzel really starts to get worried. Her mother has never left her alone for this long before. She worries that something bad might have happened to her and she wonders if she needs help.

On day seven, Rapunzel runs out of food.

On day nine, with a stomach aching with hunger, Rapunzel decides that she can't stay here any longer. She knows the rules about never leaving but if something bad has happened to her mother then she must be allowed to break the rules. There's still one problem, however, without a door, she doesn't know how to leave.

She stares out the window for a long time trying to figure it out. At first she thinks about just jumping out of the window and hoping that her magical hair heals her once she lands at the bottom but eventually she decides against it – jumping scares her a little bit too much and if it doesn't work then she definitely won't be able to help her mother.

While she thinks about ways to get out of the tower, she aimlessly unwinds her hair and lets it drop out of the window. Looking down she is surprised when it touches the ground. Suddenly excited, she eyes the hook with the little wheel on it that her mother had once explained to her was used once upon a time to deliver supplies to the top of the tower and she realizes that she knows how to make it to the bottom.

Using her hair as a rope and the old pulley, she slides down to the bottom of the tower, hesitating only a second before setting her bare feet down on the ground. When her feet touch the grass she gasps in wonder – the grass between her toes feels even better than she imagined it would.

She spends some time simply marvelling in the fact that she's really outside but, before long, she decides that, if she's going to figure out what happened to her mother, it's time to head out. Her plan is to head towards the castle on the hill, to find her sister, but now that she's down at the bottom of the tower, she realizes that she can no longer see exactly where the castle is. She glances around trying to picture exactly what direction it is, finally settling on what she thinks is the right way.

She walks for a while in the direction she's picked but in bare feet and with her stomach aching, she tires quickly. She decides that she'll stop and rest for just a few minutes. Leaning against the trunk of an old tree, she closes her eyes and, without meaning to, drifts off to sleep.

xxxxxx

It's been a little over a week since her wedding to King Leopold and Regina already finds the castle, her new home, absolutely stifling. Inside the castle walls, everywhere she turns, there's Snow – like her very own shadow. It's absolutely insufferable. Luckily, Snow has schooling on weekday mornings, and today Regina decides to slip out while the brat is otherwise distracted. Once she's out of the castle, she quickly heads towards the forest, figuring that a nice long walk there will offer her the peace and quiet that she so desperately craves.

She's about twenty minutes away from the castle when she stumbles, nearly literally, over something, or more specifically the foot of a someone. She is surprised to realize that the foot belongs to a child propped up against a tree. The child, a little girl, looks to be a few years younger than Snow and her eyes are closed. Regina's heart flutters in panic, hoping desperately that the girl is asleep and not something worse. She takes a few steps forward, intent on checking but as she moves the girl's eyes snap open.

Green eyes dart wildly from side to side before they land on Regina. As soon as the child spots her, she jumps up and reaches for the first thing she can get her hands on, a small fallen branch. Yielding the branch like a weapon, she swings it back and forth, trying to step backwards but running into the tree.

"Whoa, it's okay." Regina calls out, trying to calm the clearly panicked child.

The child swings the stick again. "Stay away."

"Okay, okay," Regina puts her hands up to show that she means no harm and she's glad when the girl finally stops swinging, although doesn't lower, the stick.

Regina's eyes sweep over the child, trying to assess her condition. She is barefoot and disheveled and she's clearly alone, which in itself indicates to Regina that something is wrong – a child this age should not be out in the forest by herself. The fact that she's alone, however, is not the most shocking realization that Regina makes, the real shock is that her golden hair trails well down her back and pools on the ground. The length of the hair, as well as its colour, instantly brings to her mind a much younger child, a two year-old with a lilac in her hand. It can't possibly be the same child from all those years ago but at the same time it seems equal as impossible that there would be another child out there with hair so unique.

"Rapunzel?" Regina finally asks, the curiosity getting the better of her. Her tone is almost hopeful, although she's not really sure why.

Recognition flits across the child's face but she doesn't lower the branch or say anything.

The long hair and the way the child clearly recognizes the name, well, it seems to confirm her suspicions – this is King Marcus and Queen Amelia's daughter, the girl who saved her life and then vanished into thin air hours later over eight years ago.

Regina speaks softly, hoping not to startle the girl, who seems a second away from turning and running. "My name is Regina and I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

At the name Regina, Rapunzel's eyes widen in surprise, "Regina?"

Regina notices how Rapunzel perks up at the mention of her name. It almost seems like this child thinks she knows her and it's a reaction that confuses her. Although, she doesn't say anything, just watches while the child watches her. She has a feeling that if she just waits, Rapunzel will reveal more because words seem to be on the tip of the girl's tongue.

Rapunzel bites the inside of her cheek while she watches Regina, as if debating whether or not she should say anything else. Eventually her curiosity seems to get the better of her. "Do you…is Cora your mother?"

Regina feels a chill go down her spine. How could this child possibly know that? She looks around, almost expecting Cora to jump out from behind a tree. She has to take a deep breath and remind herself of the mirror, of what she had done to Cora just weeks ago, before she can get her heart to stop racing and she calms down. "Yes," she finally tells the child hesitantly.

"You're Regina," Rapunzel smiles now, excited.

Regina can't help but notice how bright the child's smile is – it's a sharp contrast to her general disheveled appearance. "I am," she says hesitantly again. It's obvious now that the girl definitely seems to know who she is, or at least thinks she knows who she is.

"It's me, Rapunzel," the child smiles again, her words and tone implying that not only does she apparently know who Regina is but that she thinks that Regina should know who she is.

"I know," Regina nods, slowly, though she's pretty sure she doesn't know the way that Rapunzel thinks she does.

"Mother told you about me?" Rapunzel seems even more excited about this prospect than she did when Regina confirmed that Cora is her mother. "Do you know where she is?"

Regina frowns, she was confused before but now she is completely lost. "I…slow down. How do you know Cora?"

Rapunzel matches Regina's frown. Her eyes start to dart around nervously and she takes two steps back, this time avoiding backing into the tree.

Regina instinctively takes a step forward but when Rapunzel takes two more steps backwards before turning and running, she realizes her mistake.

Not willing to let the girl get away, not just because she seems to be the missing princess but also because she's much too young to be out here by herself, Regina follows. If she wanted to she could easily catch up to the girl but she decides that it's probably best to just follow at a distance until the girl tires. Grabbing the child will probably just frighten her more.

Rapunzel runs for a good ten minutes, until she rounds a bend and trips over a root, tumbling to the ground.

Regina approaches her slowly, not wanting to startle her again but worried that the girl might have hurt herself. She gets close in time to see the cut on the girl's knee heal itself. If there had been any remaining doubt about her true identity, it is gone. This child is most certainly the lost princess of Corona.

Seeing Regina, Rapunzel gets up and looks like she's about to run again but Regina stops her. "Please just wait. I want to help you. I promise that I won't hurt you, really."

Rapunzel looks up at her, her eyes filled with sadness. Her shoulders slump forward and she speaks quietly, "I…I thought you were my sister."

"Your sister?" Regina is still confused. She knows for sure that she doesn't have any siblings but still she asks, "Your mother is Cora?"

Rapunzel nods slowly.

"Well...Cora is my mother too," Regina tells her. She is still positive that she has no siblings but a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach makes her think that whatever is going on, her mother is involved.

Rapunzel eyes her suspiciously, "you're not just saying that to trick me are you?"

Regina can't help the small smile that crosses her lips – this child is smart. "Why don't you ask me a question that I would only know the answer to if Cora is my mother?"

Rapunzel scrunches up her forehead in concentration, clearly trying to come up with a good question. Eventually she asks, "Are you married?"

Regina hesitates before nodding, "yes." She'd been expecting a question about Cora, not herself, and she's worried that this may not be the right answer. Who knows what Cora has told the child?

Rapunzel wastes no time following up with another question. "And who did you marry?"

"King Leopold," Regina answers quickly, relived that her previous answer is right and this time knowing her answer will be correct – Cora must not have been able to resist the urge to brag about her daughter's union with the King.

Rapunzel grins widely when Regina answers. "You are my sister!"

Regina's heart sinks with the confirmation that it must have been Cora who had taken Rapunzel from King Marcus and Queen Amelia all those years ago. Her stomach clenches in anger and she wants nothing more than to go and rip her mother out of wherever the mirror has sent her and demand answers. How could she take an innocent child from her parents?

With Rapunzel looking at her hopefully, she doesn't know how to tell her that she isn't actually her sister, that Cora isn't actually her mother. "I…I didn't know about you. Where were you?"

"You didn't?" Rapunzel seems disappointed but she doesn't say so. Instead of answering Regina's second question, she simply points up ahead.

Regina fixes her gaze in the direction the child is pointing, shocked when she spots a tower distance. The tower is hidden and Regina wonders how Cora even knew about it.

Even knowing what she does about her mother, even with what her mother had done to Daniel, it still shocks her that her mother is responsible for Rapunzel's kidnapping. Did her mother really keep this child locked in a tower all of these years? It seems beyond cruel. Regina endured a childhood filled with Cora and it's an experience that she wouldn't wish on anyone – except for maybe Snow. A childhood filled with Cora while being trapped in a tower, it seems too much to bear.

"You live there?" Regina finally asks.

"Yes, I have to stay there because it's safe," Rapunzel nods. Her eyes suddenly widen and she hurries to explain. "I only left because I thought something bad happened to mother. She didn't come back after she left to go to your wedding. She's….she's not going to be mad that I Ieft is she?" The question comes out hesitant and fearful and it makes Regina even angrier at her mother.

"No dear," Regina reassures her, keeping her tone even. "She won't be mad, I promise." She doesn't explain that Cora won't be anything, that Cora won't ever get near her again. She's not yet sure how she's going to explain to Rapunzel exactly what has happened to her, how she's going to explain to Rapunzel that Cora isn't her real mother, but she does know that here, in the middle of the forest, is not the place to do it.

"Good, I was worried," Rapunzel sighs in relief before eyeing Regina hopefully. "So, mother is okay?"

Regina just watches Rapunzel, not sure what to say, until the sound of Rapunzel's stomach grumbling, keeps her from having to answer at all.

"Are you hungry?" Regina asks, eyeing the girl carefully. She calculates in her head how long it's been since her wedding, the last time she saw her mother, and hopes that this child hasn't been without food for that long.

Rapunzel looks away from Regina, as if she's embarrassed, but slowly she nods her head yes.

Regina quickly riffles trough her satchel and pulls out an apple. "Here eat this until we can get you back to the castle and we can find you a real meal."

Rapunzel hesitates a second before meeting Regina's eyes and reaching for the apple. "Thanks," she smiles softly. She takes a bite and then tilts her head sideways. "Am I really going to get to come with you to the castle?"

The way that Rapunzel asks the question, so hopeful yet hesitant and uncertain, makes Regina incredibly angry again but it also makes her incredibly sad. Looking at the wide eyes staring back at her, Regina knows that whatever has happened to this child, it's somehow her fault, and she wants nothing more than to fix it.

xxxxxx


	8. Part 7: It's just begun, FTL

**A/N: **So, I'm pretty sure this part turned out absolutely nothing like I intended it to...I got a little too caught up in the Regina/Little Rapunzel interaction and it turned into pretty much just fluff with maybe a small dash of angst and hardly no plot advancement at all...but I decided to just go with it. There's still lots of FTL story to tell but the next part will more than likely be back in Storybrooke, where Henry will making an appearance.

**There Comes a Time  
**

**Part 7 – Fairy Tale Land**

_It's just begun_

Back at the castle, Regina sits in the kitchen with Rapunzel while the child eats the soup she's set down in front of her.

They haven't been there long when Leopold strides into the kitchen purposefully. "Regina?" He motions for her to come closer.

Regina tells Rapunzel that she'll be right back before stepping away from the table and walking over to Leopold.

"What's going on? Snow said you came back to the castle with a girl." He eyes the child sitting at the table. Rapunzel has stopped eating and is staring at him and Regina.

"I found her," Regina whispers slowly, "in the forest. She's…" she stops, wondering how best to explain. "You know King Marcus and Queen Amelia, from Corona? I think…_I'm positive_ that that's their daughter."

Leopold looks at the girl again, this time really taking in her hair. "I thought Snow was making it up when she said the girl had hair as long as a building is tall but she truly does. Is this really possible? Is that really Marcus and Amelia's child?"

Regina nods, "yes."

Leopold smiles then, "Marcus and Amelia's child," he utters in wonder. "We must send word to them at once! It's a miracle. Their child is alive and looking well."

He moves to approach the child but Regina puts her hand on his forearm to stop him. "Wait. You should know, she…she doesn't know."

"She doesn't know what?" Leopold asks confused.

"That she's been missing all these years. That she's the lost princess of Corona. She doesn't know that Marcus and Amelia are her parents," Regina explains.

Leopold's face falls and he looks at the child with sadness now. "She doesn't know who she is?"

"No, she thinks her mother kept her in the forest to protect her from people who wanted to steal her hair," Regina tells him, leaving out the part where Cora is the person who kept Rapunzel in the forest. It's not that she cares so much about protecting her mother, it's more that she cares about protecting herself – being the daughter of a kidnapper, especially a kidnapper who took away the one thing that might have saved King Leopold's late wife, cannot be a good thing, even if Regina is Queen now.

"Someone pretending to be her mother kept her in the forest by claiming she was protecting her?" Leopold is clearly not following what happened. "Why would someone to do that?"

"Clearly the woman wanted Rapunzel's hair, her magic, to herself." Regina offers him an explanation, although, truthfully, she too wonders what Cora's reason for taking Rapunzel and keeping her all these years truly was. She has a suspicion of the reason but the thought is too terrible to even properly formulate in her head – admitting that her mother is _that_ evil is still too hard, even given what happened with Daniel.

"I will send the knights out at once to find this woman," Leopold declares, something akin to fury sparking in his eyes.

"I don't think we have to worry about that anymore. She's….gone," Regina chooses her words carefully, knowing that any search for Cora will likely end in disaster.

"She's dead? How do you know this?" Leopold asks and then speculates about the answer to his own question. "Rapunzel told you?" He glances in the girl's direction again, the child is still looking at them but she's gone back to eating, taking small mouthfuls of her soup.

Regina nods her head slowly in response. She's glad for Leopold's assumption, although she feels a bit guilty about lying.

Leopold sighs, running his hand through his hair. "I know Marcus will regret not getting to kill this woman himself but it's probably best for everyone that he won't have to."

"Yes, for the best," Regina agrees, meaning it.

"I guess all that leaves is for me to tell Rapunzel." Leopold decides, turning his attention once again to the girl at the kitchen table.

"No," Regina says firmly, surprising herself by disagreeing with him – if her mother were here, she would be beside herself.

Leopold tilts his head to side, patiently waiting for her to explain.

"I'm…It's just, I think it would best if _I'm_ the one who explains it to her. She seems to trust me." Regina tells him. "She's nervous and I don't want to scare her. Why don't you go take care of sending word to Marcus and Amelia and I'll take care of Rapunzel. I'll let her finish eating, the poor child is starving, and then I'll get her cleaned up. After that I'll talk to her, explain to her who she is, who her parents are."

Leopold doesn't say anything at first but slowly he nods, leaning in and kissing Regina on the forward. "See this is why I married you. You are wise my dear."

Regina gives him a small smile. She's not feeling especially wise at the moment though.

Leopold turns his attention to Rapunzel a final time. "Welcome to my castle Rapunzel. It's great to have you here," he tells her with a smile, before turning to leave. He stops at the entranceway to the kitchen, "Oh and Regina dear, don't worry, I'll make sure Snow stays out of your way for a bit. We don't want to overwhelm the girl."

Regina nods her thanks. She knows the situation is dire when even the prospect of a few Snow-less hours doesn't make her happy.

With Leopold gone, she moves back to sit at the table with Rapunzel. She can feel a headache starting, she still has no clue how she is going to explain to Rapunzel that she isn't her sister and that Cora isn't her mother.

xxxxxx

Hours later, Regina has Rapunzel settled in one of the palace's many guest rooms. This one has a four poster canopy bed and a window seat and she imagines that it looks something like the princess' room will look back in her own castle.

Regina sits down on the edge of the bed that she's just tucked Rapunzel into and sighs. As much as she wants to, she really can't avoid having this conversation any longer. She reaches forwards and smooth's Rapunzel hair, not sure where to start.

"Regina?" Rapunzel tilts her head and furrows her brow, thinking. "How come mother hasn't come to see me yet. I thought you said she wasn't mad."

"About that…" Regina picks at the blanket on the bed, looking anywhere but at the child. Now there is absolutely no chance of avoiding the conversation.

"She _is_ mad?" Rapunzel's eyes widen, her tone conveying fear.

Regina instantly snaps her head back to look at her. "No, no, no," she rushes to clarify, not wanting the girl to be scared. "No one is mad but it's just that...I'm not your sister."

Rapunzel kicks the blankets away and moves to get out of the bed, clearly preparing to run, but Regina grabs her by the arms and keeps her from getting up. "Wait, okay, just wait. You don't have to run. I'm not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. I'm not your sister because Cora isn't your mother."

Rapunzel quits struggling against Regina's hold but she doesn't relax. "I don't understand."

Regina tentatively lets go of Rapunzel when she quits struggling, glad when the girl doesn't try and get up again. "Cora is…Cora isn't a very nice person. Sometimes she does bad things. One of those bad things was pretending to be your mother," Regina tries to explain it in a way that a ten year old will understand.

Rapunzel doesn't seem to quite understanding what is being said but she asks a question. "Why?"

"I wish I knew, Rapunzel, I really do," Regina gives her the only answer she can. She really does wish that she knew why Cora did the things she did. She would like a reason for a lot of things.

"But…" Rapunzel frowns, clearly still trying to figure out what Regina has just told her means. "If Cora isn't my mother…who is?"

Regina reaches for Rapunzel's hand but the child shrugs away from her. Regina tries not to be hurt by the action, knowing that she shouldn't expect Rapunzel to trust her right now. "Your mother's name is Amelia, your father's name is Marcus. They live in a place called Corona." She doesn't mention that they're actually the King and Queen of Corona, there will be time to explain that later, she doesn't want to overload Rapunzel with too much information right now.

"Why didn't they want to keep me?" Rapunzel asks, her eyes wide, and her words sad.

"Oh dear," Regina's heart breaks for what feels like the millionth time since coming across the girl in the forest – an incredible feat given that she was pretty sure her heart died with Daniel's. She sighs, "They wanted to keep you very very much. They didn't give you to Cora. Remember how I said that sometimes Cora does bad things?" She waits for Rapunzel to nod in understanding before continuing, "Well, she took you from your mom and dad without their permission. She stole you."

Rapunzel eyes widen in what must be sheer terror. "She stole me?" She glances around the room as if expecting Cora to pop out from behind a corner.

Sensing Rapunzel's fears, Regina tries to ease them. "Cora isn't here. She isn't going to hurt you ever again."

Rapunzel frowns. "But she's still your mother?"

Regina nods slowly. "Yes but I made sure she went far away where she couldn't do any more bad things. I won't let her to any more bad things." Her tone is determined, she truly means it.

"How?" Rapunzel asks.

"I…" Regina doesn't know how to explain it to the child. "It's hard to explain but I sent her to a place where she can't hurt anyone. I promise where I sent her, she can't hurt you."

"Okay," Rapunzel nods slowly. "Regina? If Cora is bad and Cora is your mother, how do I know you're not bad too?"

The question comes out sounding innocent but it takes Regina aback and she needs a moment to collect herself before she can answer. All she's wanted all her life is to be nothing like her mother, that resolve has only become stronger since Daniel's death. "Well…if I was really bad like her would I have told you any of the things I just told you?"

Rapunzel considers this reasoning for a while before she shrugs. "I guess if you were bad you would have made me go back in the tower." She looks away from Regina before she whispers, "I don't like the tower."

Regina reaches for the child's hand again and this time Rapunzel doesn't shrug away from her. Regina squeezes her hand tight. "You will never have to go back to that tower again. I promise and I always keep my promises."

Rapunzel nods slowly and they sit there in silence for some time, each seemingly lost in thought.

"Rapunzel, can I ask you a favour?" Regina finally asks hesitantly. "Will you not tell anyone that the woman who took you was named Cora?" She knows she shouldn't ask this child to keep her secrets but everything will be so much easier for her if no one ever knows that Cora was the one who took Rapunzel.

Rapunzel looks at her curiously for a minute before asking, "Because you don't want anyone to know where you sent her?"

It isn't exactly the right answer but it's not far from the truth and Regina once again thinks how smart this child is. "Yes," she nods.

"Okay, it will be our secret." Rapunzel doesn't hesitate to answer. She gives Regina a small smile, "You're my almost sister and sisters are supposed to keep each other's secrets."

Regina returns the small smile. "Thanks Rapunzel," her tone is laced with affection. She can't help but think that if 'almost sister' wasn't a label that linked them both to Cora, she might have actually liked the idea of being this child's 'almost sister'.

Rapunzel yawns then and Regina lets go of her hand. "I think it's time for sleep now. We can talk more tomorrow, dear," she says, getting up off the bed and tucking Rapunzel back in.

Rapunzel glances around the room nervously once she's tucked in and Regina senses her fear. "I'll leave the lamp on, okay?" She motions to the lamp, hoping that having a light on will make the young girl feel safe before heading for the door.

"Wait," Rapunzel calls but when Regina turns around she won't meet her eyes and her question comes out so quiet that Regina has to struggle to hear it. "Will you stay?"

Regina nods wordlessly, moving away from the doorway and back towards the bed. Kicking off her shoes, she slides in beside Rapunzel. When the little girl snuggles in closer to her, Regina wraps one arm around her.

If this is what Rapunzel needs to feel safe, then Regina will stay here all night. She owes the child that much.

xxxxxx

A couple days later, Regina walks into the room that Rapunzel has been staying in and finds Snow already there. Rapunzel is sitting on the window seat and Snow is standing in front of her talking animatedly.

"Aren't you excited about seeing your mother and father again?" Snow asks, curiously. She would like nothing more than to get to see her own mother again and so the thought of Rapunzel being anything other than excited doesn't even cross her mind

"I…" Rapunzel just shrugs, looking down and picking at invisible lint on her dress.

"It's going to be wonderful when they get here. They're going to be so happy to see you," Snow smiles. "I bet they'll throw you a party! You'll get to wear a ball gown and there will be dancing," she twirls around the room, excited by the prospect of a party.

Rapunzel shrugs again and, although Snow doesn't seem to pick up on it, it's clear to Regina that something is bothering her. "Snow," she says, stepping further into the room and managing to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "Don't you have lessons to get to?"

Snow stops mid twirl. "Oh…can't I stay here? Can't I skip them, just this once?"

Regina raises one eyebrow, "what would your father say to that?"

Snow sighs, "okay, I'm going." She heads for the door but just before she leaves she turns and smiles at Rapunzel again. "When I'm done do you want to see the stables? I bet you'll like the horses."

Rapunzel smiles back at the girl, "sure," she answers softly.

When Snow finally leaves, Regina moves to sit beside Rapunzel, watching while the girl stares out the window. She waits a few minutes before speaking, "So, it's a little quieter in here now."

Rapunzel laughs turning to look at Regina, "She talks a lot doesn't she?"

"Yes," Regina purses her lips.

"It's kinda…nice," Rapunzel decides.

Nice isn't the word that Regina would have chosen, her choice would have been something more along the lines of annoying but she doesn't say that out loud. "I suppose."

"It was…" Rapunzel looks out the window again. "It was always so quiet in the tower."

Regina sighs, how alone must this child have been all those years? She can barely even begin to imagine. "I see," She answers in a tone that she hopes will encourage the child to speak more.

Rapunzel doesn't say anything else at first but eventually she turns to look at Regina again. "Do you…do you know what they're like?"

Regina is pretty sure she knows who Rapunzel means. "Your parents?"

Rapunzel nods, biting her lip nervously.

Regina reaches forward, running her hand over the top of Rapunzel's head, smoothing her hair in what she hopes is a soothing gesture – it's something she remembers seeing Amelia do. "Are you worried dear?"

Rapunzel shrugs, not actually answering the question.

Regina takes the child's hand. "Well, in case you were worried, there's absolutely no reason to be. I met your parents a long time ago, when you were a toddler. They're nice people, I promise. They love you very much." Of that Regina is certain, she remembers clearly the way that Marcus and Amelia had looked at each other and the way they had looked at their child the day she had met them, how obvious it had been that they loved each other, that they were happy. She's still angry that her mother is responsible for ruining that – although it would seem that ruining people's happiness is her mother's speciality. If only Regina had known then what she knows now, maybe everything could have turned out differently.

"Really?" Rapunzel seems hopeful at the prospect of her parents being nice.

"Really," Regina reiterates, squeezing Rapunzel's hand and smiling at her.

Rapunzel returns the smile but then she gets quiet again and her brow furrows. "They won't…they won't be mad that I don't remember them?" She asks hesitantly.

Regina sighs. Over the last few days, a pattern has become clear – Rapunzel is incessantly worried about people being angry with her. It makes Regina wonder just exactly what Cora did to her, just how terribly Cora treated her. "They won't be mad."

"You're sure?" Rapunzel still sounds hesitant and she looks away out the window again.

"Rapunzel look at me," Regina says gently waiting for the child to meet her gaze. "Remember how I said what happened wasn't your fault?" She eyes Rapunzel, waiting for her to nod in confirmation before continuing, "that means that no one is going to be mad at you, ever, for anything that happened. That includes not remembering. You were practically a baby when that woman took you. No one is going to expect you to remember."

"Alright," Rapunzel finally says, seeming to believe what Regina is saying.

"Now is there anything else you want to know?" Regina asks.

"Well…was Snow right? Is there going to be a party?" Rapunzel seems genuinely curious.

"I don't know. It's possible," Regina answers, truly not certain. Although, she wouldn't be surprised if there did wind up being a ball of some sort.

"Okay," Rapunzel tilts her head, shrugging, "It's just…I don't know how to dance."

"Well, I'll just have to teach you." Regina tells her. Not being able to dance is a problem that she can easily fix – she only wishes that fixing everything else could be that easy.

"I don't know," Rapunzel scrunches up her forehead as if deep in thought. "Are you a good dancer?"

At the girl's tone, Regina has the sudden urge to laugh. It almost seems like the child is joking. She's not a hundred percent sure though, so she answers seriously. "I happen to be an excellent dancer."

When Rapunzel grins slowly and giggles, Regina laughs too, nudging the girl's shoulder playfully.

It's great to hear her laugh. It's great to laugh too.

xxxxxx

Although the trip usually takes seven or eight days, Marcus and Amelia manage to arrive at King Leopold's castle within six days of receiving the news about their daughter. As they enter the castle, Leopold, Regina and Snow greet them in the entranceway. Regina and Leopold had previously agreed that it would be better to leave Rapunzel in her room until they had gotten the chance to speak with Marcus and Amelia.

Watching the King and Queen of Corona, Regina can't help but notice how different they look than the last time she saw them. Amelia looks like she hasn't slept or eaten much since Rapunzel went missing, her face is gaunt and drawn in and her eyes look pained. Marcus has aged considerable as well and, instead of the smile that Regina remembers, his mouth forms a hard line.

"Marcus, Amelia," Leopold greets them, shaking Marcus's hand and hugging Amelia. They are friends, or at least they were friends once upon a time. "Thanks for coming so quickly."

"Of course, we came as quickly as we could make it," Marcus nods.

"You made great time," Leopold agrees. He motions to Snow and Regina. "This is my new wife, Regina, and you know Snow."

"Hi," Snow curtsies politely, offering the King and Queen of Corona a wide smile.

"Hi dear," Marcus returns the girl's smile, although his smile seems pained, before turning his attention to Regina. "We're sorry that we didn't make the wedding but it's wonderful to meet you Regina."

Amelia nods in agreement but doesn't say anything, seeming distracted. She clings to her husband's hand while her eyes search the room.

"Likewise," Regina speaks up. She doesn't mention that she has met them before. She doesn't want to bring up the day that they met, probably the day that the king and queen count as the worst day of their lives.

Amelia finally speaks, although she takes the conversation in a completely different direction, making it clear where her focus, rightly so, has been this entire time. Her eyes stop their searching and settle on Leopold. "Oh Leo, is she really here? Did you really find her?" Her voice is soft and full of fear, like she expects him to say that it was all some cruel joke, that they hadn't really found her child.

Leopold nods, motioning to Regina. "It's a miracle, Amelia, a true miracle. Regina was out taking a walk in forest and she literally stumbled upon the girl."

"And you're sure it's her?" Marcus' tone seems harsh and sceptical but his eyes betray what he is truly feeling, his eyes are full of hope.

Regina speaks now. "I'm sure." Of that there is definitely no doubt. She eyes Leopold, tilting her head in Snow's direction and he nods in silent agreement. The rest of this conversation will go easier without a child listening.

"Snow, darling, why don't you go get Rapunzel," Leopold asks his daughter. "And why don't we all head into the sitting room," he addresses everyone else.

Leopold leads the adults into the sitting room while Snow heads away to retrieve Rapunzel.

Once everyone is seated, Leopold speaks up, "Look, Marcus, Amelia, before Snow comes back with Rapunzel you need to know some things. Just listen and then you can ask whatever you want." He takes a deep breath. "Rapunzel doesn't know who you are. She grew up thinking that the woman who took her was her mother, that she was being protected from people who wanted to hurt and that that's why she had to stay hidden in the forest. We've explained to her that this woman wasn't her mother and that she was wrong to take her. We've also told her that you are her parents. She understands all of this but, still, she doesn't remember you. She doesn't remember any other life than her life in the forest."

"My baby, my poor baby," Amelia's voice is filled with nothing but pain and sorrow at what Leopold has just said.

"She doesn't remember us?" Marcus' eyes are sad but suddenly they flash with pure anger. "Where is this woman who took her?"

"She's dead Marcus. She can't hurt Rapunzel anymore," Leopold reassures him of what he believes to be the truth.

"Good," Marcus responds quickly and decisively, not even attempting to hide his happiness at the knowledge that the woman is dead.

Regina can't help but wonder what Marcus would do if he ever found out that it was her mother who took Rapunzel and that Cora is actually still alive. Luckily, she doesn't have to dwell on it long because Snow comes into the room with Rapunzel trailing behind her at that moment and the entire focus of Marcus and Amelia's attention shifts.

Amelia gasps at the sight of the girl, tears instantly coming to her eyes. Almost involuntary, she stands and takes two steps forward towards the child. "Rapunzel," she whispers the child's name as if it's the first time she's ever said it out loud.

Rapunzel stops in her tracks, her eyes widening in what Regina recognizes as fear. Despite all of the times that Regina has reassured her, she is still unsure about meeting her parents.

Regina quickly gets up and walks over to her, reaching for the girl's hand and squeezing it in reassurance. She leans in and whispers to her, "It's going to be okay. Remember we talked about this?"

Rapunzel nods slowly, letting go of Regina's hand and taking a hesitant step forward towards her mother.

Marcus stands up then too, moving beside his wife and putting a hand on her shoulder. A subtle move that is for both support and restraint – it's definitely best to let the child come to them.

Rapunzel takes four more steps before she is finally standing in front of them, her parents. She takes a deep breath and looks up at them.

Amelia nearly chokes on the sob that escapes her throat. Her eyes sweep up and down taking everything about the girl in, as if she still really can't believe that she's standing there.

It's Marcus with his eyes misty at the sight of his baby girl, half grown, standing in front of him, who speaks first, a single word, "hi."

"Hi," Rapunzel whispers back. She glances at Regina before looking back at her parents again, more confident now. "I'm Rapunzel," she says seriously, sticking out her hand, clearly with the intention of shaking hands.

Marcus can't help the smile that comes to his face at her action. "I'm Marcus," he tells her his tone matching the seriousness of hers. He reaches forward, wasting no time in taking her hand into his own, though, when he doesn't drop her hand, it becomes less of a handshake and more of a handhold. With her hand firmly grasped in his own, all he can picture is the last time he held this same hand and how much smaller it had been then, how much smaller she had been then. Even though it pains him to do so, he finally does drop her hand, reaching for his wife's instead.

"Amelia," he whispers, "Say something."

Amelia doesn't even look at her husband, she has eyes only for her child, but she does listen to what he says, speaking up, "Rapunzel, my Rapunzel. I…I thought I had lost you forever, I can't believe you're really here."

Rapunzel just stares at her wide eyed.

Amelia raises her hand, as if to touch the child but Marcus squeezes her other hand and she drops her arm. She stares at the girl another minute before asking what she really wants, "I…could I hug you?" She doesn't want to do something that will bother Rapunzel but she wants nothing more than to touch her child, to hold the girl in her arms and never let her go again.

Rapunzel glances hesitantly at Regina, who gives her a small nod of encouragement. Rapunzel shuffles a little bit closer to her mother and nods her head in agreement ever so slightly.

Amelia's arms are around the child in an instant, pulling her close and Marcus follows suit, wrapping one arm around his wife and one arm around his daughter.

Watching them, Regina can't help but think that if it weren't for their tear streaked faces, you might mistake this group hug for an ordinary family moment, you might mistake them for an ordinary happy family. Regina sincerely hopes that that's what they will get to be now, a happy family.

Cora may have ruined her chance for happy ever after but maybe there is still hope for Rapunzel.

xxxxxx


	9. Part 8: A castle made of sand, Story

**A/N: **I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long to update. With the holidays and stuff, things have just been hectic! Anyway...this part is just a bunch of snapshots through time as Henry gets older, ending with the night he went to find Emma. This whole part is nothing but fluff...I couldn't seem to help myself (lol). Things will probably be getting a bit more serious after this part though with the arrival of Emma and everything in Storybrooke (including Lila's medical status) changing.

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 8 – Storybrooke**

Lila

_A castle made of sand_

xxxxxx

Lila shifts the gift bag she's holding, so that she can ring the doorbell. She's standing in front of Regina's house, although, given the size of the building, she's always wondered if 'house' is really the appropriate description. She bounces on the balls of her feet, excited about meeting Regina's baby. She wanted to come over the instant that he had arrived but unfortunately that had been a chemo day and Regina had practically forbidden her from coming anywhere near the newborn until she was over the worst of her chemo side effects. Lila had tried to protest but in the end she had agreed because, as much she stubbornly doesn't like to admit it, Regina is usually right.

It takes Regina five minutes to come to the door, which is strange given that she is usually incredibly prompt but, when she does open the door, Lila has an idea as to why it took so long. Regina is holding a screaming baby.

"Come in Lila," Regina greets quickly, looking incredibly tired, like maybe she hasn't slept all week.

"Hey," Lila walks into the foyer setting her gift bag down so that she can take her coat off and hang it up.

She picks the bag back up and follows Regina into the living room. "So…how are things going?" She raises an eyebrow, motioning with her eyes to the crying baby in her friend's arms.

"He won't stop crying. I feed him, I change his diaper, I don't know what he wants," Regina sighs. "I just want to sleep."

It's unlike Regina to admit that she wants anything, so Lila knows that Regina must be _really_ tired. Lila smiles in a way that she hopes is reassuring. "I think that's a normal baby thing, crying. Here give him to me, I want to hold him."

Regina looks like she's going to protest but instead she simply hands Henry over to Lila.

Lila smiles down at the baby, even with the crying, she thinks that he's pretty cute. She adjusts the baby so that he's lying flat on her forearm, before she starts to swoop him gently from side to side. "Hi hi hi hi hi," she chants softly looking down at him.

"Careful!" Regina calls out, sounding alarmed when Lila adjusts the baby's position and for a second Lila thinks she's going to snatch the baby back but she doesn't. It takes a few minutes but eventually the baby's cries start to fade. Regina eyes Lila with a mixture of wonder and jealousy. "How did you do that? Is he really going to stop?"

"Ssshh," Lila smirks as Henry's cries completely stop. "Just sit. I've got this. I know _all_ about how to make upset stomachs feel better." She speaks softly so as to not startle Henry but her last sentence is dripping with sarcasm.

Regina sighs in relief although she raises an eyebrow at Lila's upset stomach comment. She takes a seat on the couch, laying her head back and closing her eyes.

Lila smiles at the sight before looking down at the baby again. She grins at him "Was your tummy upset buddy? Huh, was that the problem?" She talks to him softly, continuing to gentle move him from side to side. "You're such a cutie you know. That's right Henz, you're the cutest little baby in all the land. "

Regina's eyes instantly snap open. "What did you just call my son?" she demands.

"Uh…Henz?" Lila looks over at her.

"That is not his name," Regina crosses her arms, frowning at Lila. "His name is Henry."

"Okay, so you don't like Henz?" Lila shrugs. "What about Hank? Or Hen?" She thinks a minute. "Oh oh, how about Ry?" She really likes that one.

"What about his name? Henry? What's wrong with using that?" Regina raises one eyebrow.

"But it's sooo long Regina," Lila groans teasing.

"Henry is a two-syllable name, hardly what I would define as long. In case you hadn't noticed, Lila is also a two-syllable name. Regina happens to have three syllables and you say that all the time." Regina explains rationally.

"So…what you're saying is that you want me to shorten your name?" Lila grins, feeling mischievous. Sometimes she gets a kick out of pushing Regina's buttons. "How do you like G?"

"You will not under any circumstances be calling me G," Regina frowns again.

"Fine," Lila shrugs. "But, for the record, I kind of thought it was nice." She looks down at Henry again, shifting him so that Regina can see his face. "Ry liked it too. Didn't you buddy?"

Regina clears her throat in what might be annoyance but she doesn't tell Lila not to call Henry 'Ry' and there's a small smile on her face.

xxxxxx

Sitting in a recliner in the chemo suite, Lila pulls the warm blanket one of the volunteers brought her up to her chin and closes her eyes. She's been hooked up to the chemo pump for about an hour and half and she's finally done with the actual drugs and now she's just getting her last saline drip, or what she likes to think of as the rinse cycle.

When the machine starts to beep, indicating that it's done, she slowly blinks her eyes back open, glancing around looking for one of the oncology nurses. All that's left to do now is unhook the machine and flush her port with heparin and more saline and then she can leave. She can't wait to get out of here. Just being in this building is enough to make her nauseous and now with the chemo drugs floating through her system she really just wants to go home and lie down.

It isn't long before one of the nurses comes over, giving her a gentle smile – it's the kind of look Lila gets a lot, especially here. Lila doesn't need a mirror to know that she looks like crap, chemo makes her ghastly pale, almost grey, every single time.

While the nurse pulls the needle out of her port, Lila glances up at the clock. Usually Regina is here by now and she wonders if maybe she's late because of the baby. Regina has only had Henry for two weeks and Lila's pretty sure that the mayor is still adjusting to life with an infant.

Regina still isn't there by the time that Lila is unhooked and bandaged, so she decides to just head out to the waiting room and wait there. As she gets closer though, she can hear Regina's voice and she instantly knows that something is up.

When she rounds the corner she spots Regina talking heatedly with the receptionist. Regina has a stroller with her, which Lila assumes holds Henry, and her hands are gripping its handle so tightly that they are white.

"Hey?" Lila calls out confused, "what's wrong?"

Regina looks over at her and Lila can practically see the steam coming out of her ears. "This woman says that I can't come into the chemo suite with the baby."

"You can't," the receptionist pipes up not seeming bothered by the way that Regina turns and glares at her.

Lila frowns, suddenly remembering a rule that she'd completely forgotten about. No one younger than the age of sixteen is allowed in the chemo suite. Children carry a lot of illnesses and an infection can be deadly for some people receiving chemo. She sighs, running her hand over her face. She doesn't really have the energy at the moment to debate anything with anyone. "Well, you don't have to come in. I'm here." There really isn't a problem right now, so she hopes that Regina will just let it go.

"That is not the point," Regina fumes.

Okay, so perhaps hoping that Regina would let something go was a little unrealistic. Lila sighs again, grimacing when her stomach turns. "I know but…can we go? Please?" She isn't usually so demanding but she really isn't feeling great.

Regina looks like she's about to protest but obviously something about the way Lila is looking at her changes her mind. "Fine," she tells Lila before turning to look at the receptionist again, "but this issue is not closed. We will be discussing it at a later date."

The receptionist just shrugs and it's clear that she doesn't think that anything Regina has to say now or at a later date will change anything.

Regina turns the stroller around and she glances back over her shoulder at Lila, "you coming?"

"Right," Lila hurries to fall into step beside Regina. Regina is apparently in a hurry now and she's barreling ahead at such a quick pace that it's not until they stop in front of the elevator that Lila actually gets to look down into the stroller at Henry. She notices that he's wearing one of the sleepers she bought for him and it brings a smile to her face. She reaches down and runs her finger over his cheek, "Hi Ry," she says softly.

"Careful," Regina grumbles, clearly still annoyed. "You might catch the plague from him."

Not taking her eyes off the baby, Lila just smiles, "I'll risk it."

xxxxxx

Lila's late to breakfast with Regina and three month old Henry. She slept in longer than she should have and then the snow covered streets made her drive to the dinner slower than usual. Those, of course, aren't real excuses and she's sure Regina is going to give her a lecture on the value of time and the importance of being prompt.

She parks her car close to the dinner and quickly gets out, locking the doors and walking as quickly as her body will let her towards the entrance. Opening the door and stepping inside, she immediately pulls her gloves and her hat off, shoving them in her coat pocket before she grins and waves at Ruby.

The waitress, who is carrying a couple of plates to a nearby table, returns the smile and offers a cheery, "Looking good Lila."

"Thanks," Lila shrugs, still smiling. She's pretty sure that she doesn't look any different than usual. If anything, the cold weather has her looking more worn down than usual, but she appreciates Ruby's attempts to cheer her up. After a horrid first encounter revolving around fruit covered pancakes, Lila had been certain that the waitress would never want to serve her again but it really turned out to be quite the contrary. Ruby is always incredibly nice to Lila, even sometimes eating with her if Lila comes in during a slow period and she's by herself.

"Catch you later?" Ruby asks motioning to the plates in her hands, clearly indicating that she's busy.

"For sure," Lila nods. As Ruby walks away, Lila's eyes sweep the room searching for Regina. She isn't surprised when she finds Regina sitting at their usual booth, Henry's stroller parked beside her, but she is surprised to find someone else standing at the table speaking to Regina. The someone in question is someone that she knows, someone that everyone in town knows actually, the someone in question is Mr. Gold. Given the frown on her face, whatever Mr. Gold is telling Regina is something that she doesn't want to hear.

Lila frowns watching the two but decides to approach the booth anyway. She pulls her coat off and drapes it over her arm as she walks towards them.

Mr. Gold falls silent as she stops at the booth and both he and Regina turn to look at her. "Morning dearie," he greets her. "How are you feeling these days?"

"Hello Mr. Gold," Lila greets, offering him a smile to be polite. She shrugs at his question, "as good as ever."

"So then not as well as a young lady like yourself should be feeling. Such a shame dearie," Mr. Gold tells her but he turns to look at Regina. The two seem to be having a conversation with their eyes but it's a conversation that Lila can't follow.

Finally annoyed with all of the eye talk, Lila interrupts, "I'm doing okay Mr. Gold, really, thanks for your concern though."

"Alright then dearie, you take care. I must be on my way," Mr. Gold gives her a smile before looking at Regina once more. "It was lovely speaking with Madame Mayor. Do consider my offer regarding young Henry here."

Regina doesn't say anything, just gives him a tight lipped smile and nod before he walks away.

Lila tosses her coat in the booth before she leans down and kisses Henry in his stroller. "Hi Ry," she whispers softly. The three month old is sleeping soundly, clearly not bothered by the dinner noise. Straightening up she slides into the booth before fixing her gaze on Regina and raising one eyebrow, "What was that all about?"

Regina just raises an eyebrow in return, "Nothing of importance."

"Mr. Gold said it was about Henry, I think anything about Henry counts as important." Lila crosses her arms. She wants to know what is going on and she's not just going to settle for Regina's diversionary tactics. Henry might not be Lila's son but she does love him and that makes him her business.

Regina shakes her head. "You can't just let anything go, can you Ms. Lock?"

Lila chuckles briefly at Regina calling her Ms. Lock, she seriously wonders if the mayor will ever stop doing that. Eventually she shrugs, "Like you're any better." When she'd first started spending time with Regina she wouldn't have dared to make a comment like that but over time she'd become comfortable with Regina. While she understands why a lot of the citizens of Storybrooke fear the mayor, she really wishes that they would just take the time to get to know her like Lila feels she knows her.

Regina frowns at first but eventually the frown melts into a small tight lipped smile. "Well, if you must know, we were just discussing the need for Henry to have a godparent. Mr. Gold was offering his services or _alternatives_," she frowns at the word alternatives and Lila wonders just what kind of alternatives Mr. Gold had offered her. The frown quickly melts away again though and she continues, "I was simply informing him that his services would not be required."

Lila tilts her head to the side, watching Regina. "Oh you were, were you?"

"I already have a godparent in mind. Certainly a more suitable option than Mr. Gold's _alternative._"

The frown is back in place and Lila really wants to know what exactly this alternative is but she has a sneaking suspicion that she will never find out. She raises an eyebrow curiously, "and who exactly do you think is more suitable?" She tries to keep the smile off her face but the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. Just like she has a sneaking suspicion that she'll never find out what the alternative is, she has a sneaking suspicion that she's the person that Regina has in mind to be Henry's godparent.

"I was assuming you could fulfill the role. There wouldn't be much required and _anyone_ would be better than Mr. Gold or his alternative," Regina says with a straight face.

Lila can tell that Regina is trying very hard to make it sound like being Henry's godmother is no big deal, like it's something she might ask of practically anyone. Lila knows that that isn't the truth though. Even after just three months, Lila knows how much Regina loves Henry, what she would do for him. Regina would not give the job of godmother to just anyone.

Even though Lila is pretty sure that, given that she just might drop dead any day, it would probably be best to suggest Regina pick someone else, she just can't bring herself to do that. She really wants to be Henry's godmother, to actually be tied to him, to be tied to another life. So, she realizes that maybe a little bit of her wanting to be godmother is selfish but she does love Henry. She loves that baby more than she's pretty sure she can remember ever loving anything else, and so there isn't any hesitation in her voice when she answers, grinning. "Well if _anyone_ can do it, I think I can handle it."

"Wonderful," Regina gives her what Lila likes to think of as her trademark tight lipped smile before she reaches over to the stroller and runs her finger gently over Henry's face. "I'm sure you won't disappoint Henry."

The words are perhaps meant to once again sound like the role of godmother is no big deal but Regina's voice has gone soft and there is nothing but love reflecting in her eyes as she watches Henry, so instead it sounds more like a wish. A wish that Lila has every intention to fulfill. "I won't," Lila says just as softly, nudging Henry's foot gently enough to not wake him up.

Regina straightens up in her seat and takes a sip of her coffee. Setting her cup down, she motions to the water glass on Lila's side of the table. "Water, no lemon. And you were late, so I ordered for you. Oatmeal."

"Thanks," Lila laughs, taking a sip of the water. She really doesn't mind that Regina ordered for her, she pretty much always orders either oatmeal or pancakes anyway. It's just like Regina to be too impatient to wait.

"Tardiness is no laughing matter Ms. Lock," Regina raises an eyebrow although her expression isn't all that serious. "I do hope that that's not a trait you impress upon my son in your duties as godmother."

"Well…" Lila grins teasingly, "I did once say that I was going to teach this kid everything I know. Now that I'm godmother, you totally just made that goal legit."

Regina shakes her head, "I'm going to regret my choice, aren't I?"

"You can't take it back now!" Lila laughs again, glancing over at Henry. "He's mine now." Her laugh turns into a sweet smile and she touches his foot again, whispering softly, "my godchild."

xxxxxx

Lila is holding a ten-month old Henry in her arms. They're in the backyard of Casa Mills, her current nickname for the house, where Regina is pruning her apple trees and Lila is taking care of the baby. Of course, 'taking care of' is really just code for playing with.

Lila throws Henry in the air and catches him. When he giggles she smiles and does it again.

"Be careful," Regina calls out, looking over at the two of them from her position on the ladder.

"Calm down, I won't drop him, promise," Lila tells her, tossing Henry in the air again, as if to prove it. When he giggles again she smirks at Regina. "See, Ry thinks so too."

"No. I mean be careful because he just ate not that long ago," Regina clarifies, simply raising an eyebrow in response.

"He's fine. Aren't you buddy?" Lila asks, as if the baby can answer. When he giggles, she takes that as affirmation. "See?" She tells Regina as she swoops the baby in a circle superman style before tossing him in the air again. This time he spits up all over her. She frowns.

"I warned you Ms. Lock," Regina smirks.

"Yes you did," Lila shrugs, grabbing one of Henry's cloths and wiping him down first before trying to clean herself up. "Go ahead, gloat."

"I wouldn't do such a thing," Regina continues to smirk.

"No, never," Lila says sarcastically before bursting out in laughter.

Henry, apparently amused by the sound of Lila's laughter, giggles softly too and, at that, it seems that Regina can't help herself because she laughs too.

xxxxxx

"Henry is sick, you can't come in here. I do believe I said that on the phone, didn't I?" Regina raises one eyebrow, staring at Lila in a way that tells Lila that she's at least mildly annoyed that her advice has been disregarded.

Lila is standing on the front porch of Mills Manor, as she has taken to calling the place lately, and Regina is blocking her entrance into the house. "Regina, I haven't seen him in three weeks. I really don't care if he's got a cold. I want to see him. He's my godson and he's going to think I abandoned him. He's going to forget what I look like."

"He's three, Lila, he doesn't know what a godmother is," Regina tells her, using what Lila likes to think of as her 'stop being ridiculous' tone of voice. Regina crosses her arms and leans against the door frame. "And he won't forget you because you are his favourite person."

Lila can sense a touch of bitterness in Regina's last words and she quickly replies. "Don't be silly you're his mother, you're his favourite person. He just likes me because I look goofy so I'm easy to laugh at." She subconsciously runs her hand over her bald head.

Regina shakes her head, "You don't look goofy Lila." Her tone is softer than usual and any bitterness she may feel about how much Henry likes Lila is wiped away.

Lila shrugs. She might not look so bad bald but she's pretty sure the lack of eyebrows and eyelashes make her look alien-esque. "Whatever."

"You don't," Regina's voice is strong now, firm, like she can't believe that Lila would dare not believe her.

"Okay, if you so say." Lila resists the urge to roll her eyes.

"I do," Regina says slowly, looking at Lila strangely and Lila can't help but wish she could be inside that woman's brain for just a second.

Lila smiles hoping to let Regina know that it really is okay. She might not like the way she looks but she's okay with it. "So…you're going to let poor little bald me in now, right?" She gives Regina her best lost puppy dog eyes.

Regina shakes her head but opens the door wider motioning for Lila to come in. "You're insufferable Ms. Lock."

"Indeed," Lila laughs, "but you love me."

Regina frowns, "if that's what you've been telling yourself, I doubt I could convince you otherwise."

That response just makes Lila laugh harder. She doesn't point it out but Regina hasn't actually said that she doesn't love her. As far as Lila is concerned, in Regina speak, that's pretty much the same thing as admitting that she does love her.

xxxxxxx

Lila is babysitting five year old Henry. Regina is working late, which Lila is pretty sure is just code for sleeping with Graham, but she doesn't care what the reason is if it means that she gets to spend time with Henry. She loves spending time with her godson, especially now that he's old enough to _really_ play with. Earlier they played snakes and ladders, they made (and then cleaned up) a fort with the couch cushions in the living room, Henry had a bath, Lila read him a story, and now she is finishing tucking him in.

Lila pulls the covers tight around him and kisses his forehead. "Kisses need to come in threes, I think. Three times for good luck," she grins, leaning down and kissing his forehead twice more. "There, that should do it. Night Ry."

Henry giggles when she kisses him twice more but when she moves to leave the room he squirms. "Lila?" He calls, using her name like a question.

Lila can tell that something is wrong and she takes two steps back towards the bed, tugging on the edges of his blankets again a bit. "What's the matter buddy?"

Henry sits up a bit and glances around, seeming nervous, but doesn't say anything.

Lila sits on the edge of his bed and runs her hand through his hair. "You can tell me anything Henry. What's wrong?"

Henry bites his lip and watches her with wide eyes before slowly speaking. "What about the monsters."

Ah the monsters. Regina mentioned that Henry has been having, what she calls silly, problem lately with thinking there are monsters in his room.

Lila tilts her head and scrunches up her face to let him think she is giving it seriously thought. Finally she smiles at him, "Well…I happen to be an excellent monster hunter."

"Monster hunter?" Henry asks curiously.

"Yes," she nods, keeping her face serious as she glances around the room looking for something she can use. Spotting a box of pencil crayons, she walks over to his desk and pulls a purple one out. "Aha, perfect for monster hunting!"

"You're going monster hunting?" Henry's eyes widen, full of a mixture of fear and wonder.

"Of course, if there are monster in this room, there won't be any left when I'm done with them!" She smiles at him. "I just need one more thing…" she glances around before opening one of his drawers and pulling out one of his belt. She wraps it around her head, tightening it in place like a ninja bandana before turning to face him again. "Now I'm ready!"

Henry giggles at the sight of her, any monster fear clearly vanishing at how ridiculous she looks. "What's that for?"

"This?" Lila taps the belt, now monster fighting bandana. "All monster fighters need headgear. It surprises the monsters long enough to use this tool," she holds up the pencil crayon, "to send them back to monster land." She is careful not to say that she's going to kill monsters, that seems far too violent and not the kind of thing she wants to tell a five year old.

"Oh," Henry smiles and nods, as if it all makes sense.

Lila starts with the closet, pulling the door open quickly, taking up a strange stance with the pencil crayon wielded like a sword, and shouting, "Hiya!" After a couple of seconds she relaxes her pose. "No monsters to send back to monster land in there." She tiptoes towards Henry's bed and motions for him to be quiet. "I guess there are no monsters in this room at all." She pretends to use a diversionary tactic before she quickly drops to the ground to look under the bed once again shouting, "hiya!"

"Did you get them?" Henry asks peering over the edge of the bed at her, not sounding scared but excited.

The drop to the ground was too quick of a change for Lila and she immediately realizes how dumb of a thing it was for her to do. Her head spins and she has to take a couple deep breaths before she can answer him. "Nope. There's actually no monsters under here at all." She stands up slowly, bringing her hand subtly to her head to try and stop the room from spinning as she takes a seat again beside him on the bed. "I guess there aren't any monsters in your room at all. Too bad, I like catching monsters."

Henry giggles reaching over and putting his hand on hers. "I think you scared them all away."

"Maybe," Lila grins at him. "I'm pretty scary."

Henry shakes his head. "You're only scary to monsters, not me."

"Oh okay," Lila smiles again, running her hand through his hair. "That's good. I wouldn't want to scare you, ever."

Henry just smiles at her before he asks quietly, "Lila?"

There it is again, her name being used like a question. "Ya, Ry?"

"Will you lie down with me just until I fall asleep?" He asks shyly.

Lila knows that she probably should say no but the truth is she's kind of tired and, besides, it's not like she knows how to say no to him anyway. He's got her wrapped around her little finger, even if he doesn't really know that yet. "Sure bud."

Lila gets up and turns the room light off, making sure his lamp is on, before moving back to the bed again. She kisses his forehead and nudges him over so that she can lie down beside him. Adjusting the covers she settles in beside him.

With the covers snug around him, he shifts so that his head is resting on her shoulder, "Night Lila," he mumbles, clearly almost asleep already.

"Night Ry," she whispers back, putting her arm around him and closing her eyes.

She plans on lying there for only a few minutes but monster hunting is hard work and it has tired her out, or at least made her even more tired than she already was, so a few minutes is all it takes for her to drift off to sleep.

Later, when Regina comes home, she finds Lila and Henry still asleep in Henry's bed. Lila has one arm wrapped around Henry, Henry's head on her shoulder, and Henry's belt still tied around her head.

xxxxxxx

Seven year old Henry sits cross-legged facing Lila on the living room couch in what Lila has lately started referring to as Mills Hall. They're staring at each other and neither of them is blinking.

"What are you two doing?" Regina demands as she comes into the room.

Henry turns to look at her and as soon as he moves his head Lila throws her arms up in the air in victory, "I win!"

"Hey, no fair," Henry looks back at her. "That doesn't count."

"It totally counts," Lila grins.

Henry crosses his arms, frowning, "no way."

"Come on Ry, How else am I supposed to win?" Lila shrugs, "You're too good."

"Uh-uh," Henry shakes his head in protest, leaving his arms crossed. "Still doesn't count. Mom distracted me."

"See, this is why I keep telling you to pay no attention to her," Lila winks at him.

"I do not think that is an appropriate thing to be telling my son," Regina interjects, crossing her arms and frowning at Lila, her expression and posture nearly mirroring Henry's.

"Great, now you're both frowning," Lila groans teasingly. "Way to make a girl feel welcome in your home." She pretends to frown too. "That's it, I'm out of here." She stands up from the couch, as if she really is going to leave, but the move is too quick and as soon as she's on her feet her vision goes black and she sways unsteadily.

"Sit down now." Regina's tone is sharp and demanding, making it obvious that she's noticed the way Lila is swaying.

Lila sighs but obeys the command, mostly because she's pretty sure that if she doesn't sit down now there's a distinct possibility that she won't be standing anyway. She closes her eyes and takes a couple of deep breaths before opening them again, relieved when her vision clears.

"Lila?" Henry asks quietly, clearly wanting to know what is going on.

Lila immediately turns to look at him. Henry looks incredibly worried and she instantly feels bad – he's much too young to have to ever worry about her. He really shouldn't be worrying about anyone but himself. She glances at Regina quickly but the other woman's expression is unreadable. Lila leans over and nudges Henry. "Fiiinne," she drags the word out, grinning at him. "I _guess_ I won't leave then. And I _guess_ we can have a rematch. Just this once."

Henry doesn't seem convinced at first, still looking worried, but eventually Lila's silly grin seems to get to him and he smiles. "Alright, you're on."

"I'm so going to win," Lila teases him.

"Never," Henry shakes his head laughing. "You never win."

"He's right, you know," Regina can't help but smile at the two of them. "I do believe that you're always complaining about being bested by a seven-year-old, Ms. Lock."

"Geez…now you're ganging up on me?" Lila smirks, "Did you both forget that I just won?"

"Didn't we just go over this?" Henry sighs dramatically, exasperated. "It didn't count."

"Oh right," Lila shrugs, smiling innocently. "I was hoping you forgot that part.

xxxxxx

Lila is lying on the couch, a throw pulled up tight around her to ward off the cold, when the phone rings, she considers not answering because she doesn't want to move from her cocoon of blankets but concern that it might be an emergency of some kind spurs her to get up and grab the phone.

"Hello?" She asks bringing the portable phone up to her ear. Her concerns are almost immediately confirmed when the voice on the other end is a frazzled sounding Regina. Even without hearing the frazzled tone in her voice, given that Regina had actually just left here twenty minutes ago after spending the whole day with Lila at the hospital for her chemo appointment and then back here for dinner, Lila knows something is wrong.

"Lila, is Henry there?" Regina wastes no time getting to the problem.

"No," Lila frowns, although Regina can't see her. "Why? Was he not home when you got there?"

"He's not here and I called Archie, Henry never went to a session with him after school or to dinner with him for dinner like he said he was going to," Regina explains.

Regina sounds like she's panicking and Lila can't help but feel a little panicked herself. Lately the ten year old has seemed miserable a lot of the time and that only worries her more. What if he's run away? It's dark and cold and he's too young to be out there by himself.

Still holding the portable phone, Lila moves to grab her jacket, slipping it on while she talks, "Call Graham. I'm going to go look for him."

"No," Regina immediately answers. "You're sick. You just had chemo, stay there. Maybe he'll come to your apartment."

The last part sounds so hopeful that Lila wants nothing more than to say, yes, he's probably coming here, but she knows that's probably not true. After all, Henry waited for a day that Regina was occupied with her to pull this disappearing act, there's no way he's coming here, which begs the question, where is he going?

"Regina, if you think I'm sitting at home and just waiting for Henry to turn up in a ditch somewhere then you clearly don't know me at all." Lila immediately feels bad at her choice of words when Regina takes a sharp intake of breath at the word ditch.

"I…" Regina sounds like she's about to break. "Where is he?" Her words are quiet and full of sorrow.

"I don't know Regina," Lila sighs, "but we're going to find him." She grabs her keys and her cell phone and slips her shoes on. "Look, I'm going to check the park. Call the Sherriff and let him know what's going on. Call me on my cell if you find him or you hear anything."

"Lila…" Regina's voice is still quiet and then she does something that she rarely does, she gives in. "Okay but be careful. I don't need something happening to you on top of this. And call me when you get to the park so that I know where you are."

"I will," Lila assures her. "I'm hanging up now but it's…it's going to be okay Regina." She hopes that that's not a lie.

"Thanks," Regina whispers.

"Mmhm, thank me when we find him," Lila says shrugging off the thanks. She clicks the phone off, sighing once they're disconnected. Henry has seemed so miserable lately and right now all she can think is that she may regret for the rest of her life not pushing to find out what was wrong.

She leaves her apartment, locking the door behind her and heading down to her car. She doesn't care how sick she feels, how long of a day it's been, she'll look for Henry until they find him. Not finding him, well that's not an option.

xxxxxx


	10. Part 9: Before it slips right, Story

**A/N** - Although I had severe writers block and it took me like an eon to write this part, I have high hopes that the next update will be much quicker. Probably one more Storybrooke part and we'll be jumping back to Fairytale Land. Also, side note, with everything going on in Season 2 right now, I'll I can think about it how Lila would react...and yes...even though this story was just supposed to span Season 1, I think I'll probably wind up extending it.

For this part, just wanted to say a quick thanks to Mira SeverusSirius Black-Snape who gave me an idea!

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 9 – Storybrooke**

Regina

_Before it slips right through your hands_

xxxxxx

Regina watches out the window as first Emma Swan and then the Sheriff drive away. It's not until both of their cars are completely out of site that she trudges up the stairs to see her son. She hesitates outside his doorway for a moment, a million thoughts racing through her mind, before she takes a deep breath and pushes the door open. He's already turned the light off and climbed under the covers but she knows him well enough to know that he's not really sleeping.

She wants to tell him to open his eyes. She wants to say that they need to talk. She wants to demand to know what exactly this Emma Swan meant when she mentioned the 'the fairy tale thing', when she mentioned a fairy tale book. She wants to tell him how much he scared her pulling this disappearing act. She wants to tell him how much she loves him. She wants to say so many things but every time she opens her mouth to speak she closes it.

She watches him lying in bed, pretending to sleep, and all she can see is him standing in front of the house declaring that she is not his real mother. She should have known that this day was coming. She is, after all, the Evil Queen. Unlovable. Apparently in all realms. Now if only she could convince herself that being the Evil Queen also means that she doesn't care about being unloved. If only she could convince herself that hearing those words didn't sting, deeply.

She the memory of the words stings so badly that she can't bear to look at him any longer and so her eyes drift to the collage above his desk, settling on a photo of him with Lila. It's a photo that was taken several months ago and, in this particular photo, neither of them is looking at the camera; they are instead looking at each other. Lila's hands are thrown up as if she's been animatedly describing something, Henry's head is tilted backwards slightly, and they're both laughing at some joke that only they understand. Regina is never quite sure if she loves or hates this photo. Right now, she's close to settling on the later, when her eyes suddenly widen in horror and she rushes unceremoniously out of the room.

She takes the stairs as quickly as humanly possible – sometimes not having magic is such a pain – and she heads directly for the phone. Picking up the receiver she dials Lila's cell number and taps her fingers impatiently against the desk while the phone rings, once, twice, three, times, four times, and then it goes to voicemail. She slams the phone down and immediately picks it back up, redialling, only to get the same none response. She tries one more time, the phone making it to the fourth ring again but this time instead of going to voicemail there's a click and a quiet "hello" on the other end.

Regina lets out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. "Lila? Why were you not answering your phone? Was that not the agreement we came to when you insisted on leaving the comforts of your apartment to go searching for Henry? That you could be reached on your cell phone?" Now that she has Lila on the phone she suddenly feels, perhaps irrationally, angry. How dare Lila not answer her phone and worry her like this?

On the other end of the phone there's a pause and what sounds like a shaky breath before Lila completely deflects the questions. "Henry? Did you find him?"

Regina detects an edge of panic in Lila's voice and any anger she'd felt a moment ago vanishes. Lila loves Henry as much as she does and obviously she's worried. "Yes. He came back…with the woman who gave birth to him," she can't keep the distaste out of her voice.

"What?" Lila's voice is a mixture of disbelief and confusion. "Why would he…oh Regina, I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry? Did you send him searching for him Ms. Lock?" Regina retorts quickly, not willing to even hint that his actions have hurt her.

"Of course not Regina. I just…" Lila hesitates and then switches trains of thought, clearly realizing that pushing Regina would be useless "…he's okay though?"

"Yes, he's up in his room. Completely in one piece," Regina confirms.

"Thank goodness," Lila breathes a sigh of relief, her voice suddenly sounding beyond exhausted, "I was so worried."

Regina wants to say 'me too' but instead she changes the conversation. "You never told me why you didn't answer the phone when I called the first two times."

There's a long pause and another shaky breath before Lila speaks. "I was…uhh…just maybe resting my eyes?"

"Is that a question? Are you asking me why you didn't answer the phone?" Regina retorts, unimpressed with the fact that Lila isn't being forthcoming with her answer.

"No," Lila sighs. "I think I feel asleep."

"Asleep?" Now Regina is confused. "Where are you?"

"The park," Lila answers.

"You fell asleep at the park? How?" Regina can barely believe what she is hearing.

"I…" Lila groans, "it's no big deal. Forget about it."

"I will not under any circumstances be forgetting about it, Ms. Lock. Explain now," Regina's voice is firm.

"Fine," Lila sighs once again, her voice distant. "I was dizzy and so I sat down and I closed my eyes for a minute and then…well, I was sleeping."

"You were dizzy," Regina says it like a statement, not like a question. Lila gets dizzy a lot so that fact in itself isn't so surprising, although Regina has a sneaking suspicion that whatever is wrong is probably a little more than simply Lila being dizzy. She really should not have let her go out looking for Henry. "I'm coming to get you," she decides.

"Regina," Lila sounds annoyed now, or as close to as annoyed as she can sound through the exhaustion. "I can get myself home."

"Oh really? And, do tell me Ms. Lock, if you closed your eyes right now would you fall back asleep?" Regina asks evenly.

Lila doesn't answer right away. "That's not fair," she finally says, clearly unable to deny it but not wanting to admit it.

"No, it's simply the truth," Regina says. "It wouldn't be safe for you or for anyone else if you drove yourself home in this state. In case you forget, I am the mayor of this town, what would people think if I was responsible for making the streets unsafe?"

Lila takes another deep breath through the phone before she whispers quietly, "fine."

The fact that Lila has caved so easily is concerning but Regina tries not to let it worry her. "Just stay put, I'll be there very shortly."

"I'm not going anywhere," Lila mumbles and the way she says it makes Regina think that she's already tried to stand up while they've been on the phone and has been unsuccessful in her endeavour.

Regina hangs the phone up and heads immediately for the entryway. She pulls her coat on and is about to put her shoes on when she suddenly she has a thought. Turning her head to glance up the stairs, she resists the urge to sigh – she can't leave Henry here alone. After tonight, she can't be sure that he won't just leave again or something to that affect. She leaves her shoes and heads back up the stairs and into his room. Stepping inside she wastes no time in announcing, "I know you're not sleeping, get up. "

Henry just continues to lie there, unmoving.

"Henry, I'm not messing around. Get up now," she says sharply.

His eyes snap open quickly then. He sits up, looking alarmed.

For a half a second Regina almost feels bad about the look of fear on her son's face but she just tells him matter-of-factly, "put your clothes back on. We have to go out. To get Lila."

"Lila?" Henry scrunches up his brow, the fear replaced with a look of clear confusion.

"She is at the park. Looking for you," Regina raises one eyebrow pointedly. Although Henry is not sorry about upsetting her, she has a feeling that he will have the good sense to be sorry about upsetting Lila.

"Oh," Henry does look appropriately sheepish at the news but he quickly looks confused again. "But why do we have to go get her?"

"It's cold and it's late. It was a hospital day today and now she's too sick to drive herself home." Regina hands him his clothes not even attempting to gloss over the details of Lila's health status like she'd frequently done in the past. "Now hurry up and come downstairs when you're done."

Henry's eyes widen and the sheepish look from moments ago is replaced with worry. "Okay, I'll get dressed," he says quietly, taking his clothes from her.

Regina doesn't even attempt to comfort him, to tell him that everything will be okay. She just stalks out of the room and heads back downstairs to wait for him.

xxxxxx

Fifteen minutes later, Regina is pulling in to a parking spot beside Lila's car. She's barely shifted the car into park before Henry hops out and she's quick to follow suit.

"Over there," Henry points to the form sitting on a bench not too far away from the parking lot.

Regina carefully follows behind as Henry bounds towards the bench where Lila is sitting with her knees drawn to her chest and her head resting on her forearms on top of them.

"Lila!" He calls as they get closer and Regina has to supress her alarm when Lila raises her head, her face a sickly greyish colour much worse than her usual post-chemo pallor.

"Look who's alive," Lila attempts to joke but her words hold no vibrancy and her voice is distant, as if she's not even really awake.

"Are you okay?" Henry asks, sliding into the seat beside her.

"Ya, Ry, just tired," she nods and Regina searches her face trying to confirm whether or not that is the truth. "Are you okay?" She asks resting her head on her arms again, like it's too much effort to hold it up without support, but tilting it so that she's still looking at him.

"Yes. I…" he glances hesitantly at Regina. "I got a ride back. I'm fine."

"You scared me," Lila whispers quietly, her eyes drifting in Regina's direction before she looks back at Henry. "I didn't like that. No fun."

Henry hangs his head a moment and, just like she'd predicted earlier, Regina can tell that he feels sorry about worrying Lila. Henry looks back at Lila, "I'm sorry Lila. Really," he reaches out and grabs her hand and then his eyes widen. "Why are you so cold?"

"Because it's cold?" Lila offers as an explanation, shivering seemingly just at the word cold.

Regina frowns, suddenly noticing that, while Lila has a hat and coat on, she has no gloves. Regina reaches forward to touch Lila's face and test the temperature for herself. Lila's skin is like ice and she doesn't like that in the least. "That's it, time to go. We're taking you home now."

Lila lifts her head up again and her eyes meet Regina's. "What about my car?" She asks it but her voice is so tired that she barely sounds like she cares what the answer is.

Regina waves her hand, implying that it's really no big deal. "I'll have the sheriff bring it to you tomorrow."

Lila nods but grimaces, clearly regretting the quick head motion. "Okay."

"Henry, why don't you go open the car door for Lila," Regina motions with her head in the direction of the car and he nods silently and heads quickly towards the car.

AS he heads off, Regina focuses her attention on Lila, helping her up and leading her to the car without another word.

Regina knows that Lila really isn't feeling well when she accepts the assistance without even an attempt at protesting.

xxxxxx

The next two days go by in a blur and before she knows it, Regina is watching Mr. Gold as he limps away from the garden adjacent to Town Hall. The conversation that she has just had with the man has done nothing but make her incessantly angry. So angry, in fact that she can no longer focus on the task at hand – fixing the mess Ms. Swan has made of her prized apple tree. She tries to focus for a couple more minutes but it quickly becomes clear that it's no use – she needs to do something else. She pulls her cell phone out, hesitating only a second as her thumb hovers between Graham's and Lila's speed dial numbers, before she hits one. The phone rings and rings and rings but no one picks up. She hangs up and then promptly hits speed dial again and when she gets the same result she frowns and shoves her phone back in her pocket. Forget it. She'll just head over.

When she gets there she doesn't even bother knocking, just barges in, eyes immediately scanning the living area, looking for the person she expects to find on the couch. When she doesn't, she frowns.

"Lila?" She calls out but gets no response. She takes her shoes and her coat off and is about to start searching the apartment when she hears a deep, painful sounding, hacking coming from the bedroom. She immediately heads for Lila's room, the door is open and she steps inside walking swiftly towards the bed where Lila is lying in the fetal position with the blankets pulled all the way up to her chin.

"Lila?" She calls again, this time more softly. Clearly something is wrong if she's in bed this early in the evening. Even on her worst days Lila moves from the bedroom to the living room in the daytime

"Hi," Lila mumbles, looking up at Regina with glassy eyes before she coughs again.

Regina frowns, not liking the way Lila's eyes look or the fact that, without even trying, she can hear the wheezing in Lila's chest when she breathes. Nearly subconsciously, she reaches her hand forward and places it on Lila's forehead, pulling it back quickly and demanding, "How long?"

"How long what?" Lila grumbles, just as a deep cough shakes her entire body.

"How long have you been burning up?" Regina frowns again, "and coughing?" The tone of her voice betrays her as the worry seeps out against her will. She blames this slip up on the stress of Henry's recent disappearance and the arrival of one Ms. Emma Swan but, after years of blaming one thing or another, a small part of her brain is almost willing to admit that the real reason is simply that this is Lila. Lila has the same effect on her here, as Rapunzel always had on her back in their land.

"It's not even that bad," Lila groans, sitting up and inadvertently pulling the blankets down past her shoulder, exposing her bare arms. She immediately shivers as the air hits her skin.

"How long?" Regina demands again, not even stopping to blink at Lila's claim that it isn't bad – by now she's fully aware that Lila never admits when anything is wrong, she's far too stubborn for that. Seeing the girl shiver, she reaches over and pulls the blankets back up, covering Lila's shoulders.

"I don't know," Lila shrugs, snuggling back into the blankets, seeming happy to have them covering her again. "Yesterday, I guess."

Regina makes a noise of disapproval, glaring at Lila in a way that she knows will convey her disappointment. "Have you at least checked it?"

"Uhh…no?" Lila has the good sense to at least look sheepish when she makes the admission.

Regina just shakes her head, tsking in disapproval once more, before storming out of the room. She heads quickly to the medicine cabinet and retrieves the thermometer she knows that Lila keeps there before storming back into the bedroom and thrusting the thermometer in Lila's direction. "Check it."

Lila sighs but obeys, sticking the thermometer under her tongue and waiting for the shrill beep that confirms that her temperature is higher than normal. She doesn't even get a chance to look at the number before Regina is pulling the thermometer from her hands.

Regina's frown deepens as she glances at the number on the digital display. "It's 103.1, Ms. Lock." She manages to keep her tone even but she can feel the start of something akin to panic bubbling in her chest. It's close to the feeling she felt when Henry disappeared, close to the feeling she felt when she realized that the clock had started keeping time again, and it's not a feeling that she likes. She sets the thermometer down on the night stand and moves to the dresser, pulling drawers open, searching until Lila's voice has her turning around again.

"What are you doing?" Lila calls out, her voice full of both confusion and curiosity.

"I'm looking for something for you to wear," Regina replies matter-of-factly, "I don't imagine you want to go outside in your pajamas."

"Outside?" Lila's brow scrunches up in confusion. "Regina, why am I going outside?" She shivers then, as if just the thought of venturing outdoors has given her a chill.

"Because you are going to the hospital," Regina states firmly, attempting to make it clear that there is absolutely no room for argument on the matter.

"Regina, no. I'm okay, really." Lila tilts her head to the side and fixes Regina with a look that Regina imagines is supposed to convey determination or perhaps simply that she's fine but with glassy eyes and cheeks flushed from the fever the look is far from successful at conveying anything but the fact that Lila is clearly sick. When she coughs moments later, causing her shoulders to heave with the effort, her whole argument seems utterly ridiculous.

"103.1 is _not_ okay by anyone's standards. Don't even bother giving me that speech you have rehearsed about growth factor shots and white blood cell counts, I am taking you to the hospital where you will remain until a doctor, preferably _you're_ doctor, says it's okay for you to leave." Regina doesn't even wait for Lila to answer she just turns back to the dresser and pulls a pair of socks, sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt out of the drawers and brings them over to the bed. "Now, do you need help getting dressed or can you do it yourself?"

Lila opens her mouth and closes, as if wanting to argue but then changing her mind. She stares at Regina for what seems like forever before she speaks, "I can do it."

"Good," Regina nods, hiding her relief that she's not going to have to resort to hitting Lila over the head or tying her up or something of that nature to get her to the hospital. "I'll go gather your coat and your hat and gloves. It's cold out," she adds and with that she leaves the room.

xxxxxx

Three hours later, they have Lila hooked up to IV antibiotics and fluids and she's been moved to a private room. They've done blood work and a chest x-ray and the verdict is that she has an infection of unknown origin, which has turned into pneumonia. With lungs damaged from chemo, they aren't taking any chances. Until her temperature is gone and her chest is clear, or at least clearer, this is where she's staying, no matter how much she protests, which, in between bouts of coughing, is a lot.

After a particularly bad coughing fit, Lila collapses back against the pillows, closing her eyes and grimacing.

"What were you just saying about going home?" Regina raises an eyebrow pointedly when Lila opens her to look at her.

"Nothing, okay? I was saying nothing," Lila grumbles, obviously finally ready to admit defeat. "I'll stay in the stupid hospital until this stupid little cough goes away and my doctor says I can leave."

"I would hardly call pneumonia a stupid little cough," Regina states matter-of-factly, though there is no sharpness what-so-ever in her voice. In fact, her tone is verging on sympathetic.

"Fine. I'll stay in the stupid hospital until this stupid _big_ cough goes away and my doctor says I can leave." Lila eyes Regina, her expression nearly daring her to find fault with this amended statement.

"Good," Regina responds, "let me just note the time," Regina purposefully glances at the clock, "you can't take it back now. I will be holding you to it."

Lila groans but then she smiles at Regina, "I wouldn't expect anything less from you."

xxxxxx

The following day, Regina leaves work early and heads to the hospital to visit Lila. When she gets there and finds Lila sound asleep instead of simply leaving she takes a seat beside the bed and waits. She figures that she needs time to think, to plan, what she is going to do about her Emma Swan problem and that this is just as good of a place to do that as anywhere else, probably actually better, since no one is likely bother or interrupt her here. The fact that maybe she's really just waiting for Lila to wake up so that she can make sure that she's okay doesn't even cross her mind. After all, she's actively ignoring the fact that, even with all the other things she has to worry about, worrying about Lila has been on her mind all day.

She's watching Lila sleep, noticing the way that, even asleep, her breathing is still much more laboured than it should be, when Henry pokes his head into the hospital room.

The frown that slides across her son's face when he sees her makes Regina frown too. She doesn't know what she's done to make him dislike her so much. Sure she's technically the Evil Queen but she's certain that she hasn't actually ever done anything evil to _him_. The truth is, despite what he thinks, she really does love him. All she's ever done is love him and it doesn't seem fair to her that he doesn't return that love. Things were supposed to be better here, weren't they? Wasn't she supposed to be happy here in Storybrooke? Wasn't that the point of the curse in the first place?

"Henry?" She uses his name like a question and her tone is sharper than she intends it to be.

"I just wanted to see her," Henry answers defensively, stepping into the room but stopping just inside the doorway.

"And why aren't you at school?" Regina raises one eyebrow, her tone still cool.

"Class field trip to decorate the hospital. Ms. Blanchard said I could come check on Lila," He explains quickly, his voice still defensive.

Oh right. Regina had been so preoccupied with figuring out how to take care of her Emma Swan problem, and actively trying not to worry about Lila, that she'd completely forgotten about Mary Margaret Blanchard's ridiculous field trip to the hospital. She swallows and offers Henry a tight lipped smile, hoping that that will suffice as an apology for her previous tone of voice. Of course, she refuses to actually apologize – she is too proud for that.

Henry just stares at her, unblinking and not moving from the doorway.

"Henry…" Regina finally says, suddenly remembering that she should lower her voice given that Lila is sleeping. "Would you quit skulking in the doorway and come in?"

Henry shrugs but he shuffles three steps forward. He stops not quite at the edge of Lila's hospital bed and his eyes drift to look at his godmother.

Watching him Regina suddenly has the urge to get up and hug him but instead she just keeps staring.

Henry finally looks away from Lila and back at Regina. He bites the inside of his cheek and fiddles with the edges of the construction paper card he is holding. "Is…is she going to be okay?"

He looks so scared that Regina nearly does stand up then to hug him, to reassure him, but something, probably the memory of him saying that she's not his real mother, holds her back. Instead she nods slowly, "Her doctor has assured us that in a few days she should be going home." She's given him a truthful answer but she knows that it's also a response that doesn't necessarily actually answer his questions, a fact that she hopes he doesn't pick up on. Lila will recover from the pneumonia but the real truth is, now that the clock is moving again, Regina wonders what exactly that will mean for Lila's continued health. As long as time had been frozen, Regina had been reasonably sure that Lila would be fine, that her health situation would remain stable. It had meant an eternity of being a cancer patient but also an eternity of being alive. Now, however, the possibilities, well, they are more worrisome than Regina is willing to admit.

Henry nods at her answer and looks away. He shuffles his feet and continues to fiddle with the card in his hand. When his eyes meet Regina's once more she can see the question in them and for a brief moment Regina wonders if he's actually picked up on the way she's evaded answering his question. However, when he does speak, it's a completely different question that leaves his mouth. "Is it because…is it my fault?"

Regina wants to lie and say that, no, spending an entire evening out in the freezing cold when she was so sick that she was too weak to even drive herself home afterward is not related at all to Lila's current predicament but she can't seem to form those words, to lie, so she just stares at him wordlessly. It's strange, she thinks, that she can't seem to lie to him about this when she has no problems lying about so many other things. Realistically, even if this hospital stay isn't because of Lila's 'find Henry mission', it is likely related to time beginning to move forward again, and _that_ most definitely is Henry's fault. If only he hadn't gone to find _that_ woman.

"No, it's not your fault." It's Lila who softly provides the answer that Regina's son so desperately needs to hear.

At the sound of her voice, immediately Regina and Henry shift their focus from each other to the occupant of the bed, who is clearly no longer sleeping.

"Hi Ry," Lila murmurs, managing to smile sweetly at the boy before she is racked with a coughing fit.

Regina stands up and gets closer to the bed, pouring some water into a glass and waiting for Lila to finish coughing before holding the cup out for her to take. As Lila's shaky hands reach for it, Regina worries that all Lila will manage to do is spill the water all over herself, so instead of completely relinquishing the cup to Lila, she keeps her hands on it, helping Lila guide it to her mouth and pulling it back when Lila is finished. If this action bothers Lila, who is usually stubbornly independent to a fault, she doesn't say so, which, as far as Regina is concerned, in itself speaks volumes about how unwell she clearly still is.

With the cup now set back down on the side table, Regina's gaze drifts from Lila back to Henry. He looks startled and perhaps even scared. She doesn't like to see him scared, yet still she can't seem to manage to step forward and do anything to comfort him. It's like there is an invisible wall between them and she doesn't know how to remove it.

Lila must sense his worry as well because she speaks up, her voice calm and reassuring in a way that brings a smile to Henry's face and makes Regina envious. There is clearly no invisible wall between Henry and Lila.

Regina stubbornly pushes the envy away as quickly as possible – envy is as nasty an emotion as they come and being envious of a cancer patient who doesn't know she's cursed is just plain ridiculous. Besides, Regina is positive that people are supposed to be envious of her, not the other way around.

"Whatcha got there, Ry?" Lila asks, motioning with her eyes to the paper in Henry's hand, an easy smile on her face.

"Oh right," Henry smiles back at her, taking a couple steps closer to the bed, so that he's standing right beside Lila and he holds up the card. "I made this for you." The card is purple, her favourite colour, and he's drawn a picture of a castle on the front with the words _Get Well Soon._

Lila takes the card and opens it up, smiling as she reads it before handing it to Regina. "Look how awesome this is."

Regina takes the card and glances at it. Inside is a picture of what she imagines is supposed to be Henry and Lila fighting what she thinks are monsters. The inscription inside the card seems to confirm her suspicions. _There are still monsters out there to fight. Love, Henry._ Regina isn't sure if she should smile or frown. It's obvious that Lila thinks Henry is referring to the days when he was younger and she had come up with a silly way of fighting off the monsters he'd thought were lurking at every turn. Regina, however, wonders if maybe the monster he's referring to is her.

Eventually Regina does smile, mostly because she can feel Lila's expectant eyes on her.

"It's a very nice card." Regina confirms, looking over at Henry then and giving him the best smile she can muster. "It was very nice of you to make it for Lila and I'm sure she's glad that you came to visit too. Isn't that right, Lila?" Ms. Lock is on the tip of her tongue but for once she avoids using it – it simply doesn't feel right given that Lila is lying in a hospital bed.

Lila coughs again but this time she recovers quickly, a grin immediately replacing the grimace that the coughing fit brought to her face. "I am. Super duper glad," she pauses a beat, "super duper duper times like twenty glad."

At her answer, a matching grin spreads across Henry's face. It's a grin that Regina realizes she hasn't seen in a while and, well, that realization makes her frown.

Noticing the frown, Lila raises an eyebrow inquisitively but Regina just shakes her head, silent saying to let it go.

Regina is glad when Lila doesn't push, instead just turning her attention back to Henry who is now telling her about how his class is on a field trip to decorate the hospital.

xxxxxx

"The clock is moving," Lila announces two days later, staring out the window of the car in wonder as Regina drives her home – well not to Lila's home but to Regina's house. After much effort, Regina had managed to convince Lila to come back to her house for at least the rest of the week while she recuperates because while Lila may be well enough to leave the hospital, she's certainly not well.

"It's been doing that for a while now. You were just too sick to notice," Regina tells her, keeping her eyes on the road and her tone neutral. The last thing she wants to do is give away how terrifying it is for her to see the hands of the clock moving. She really has no good explanation prepared to provide a reason why that would bother her.

"That's so cool." Lila doesn't look away from the window while she speaks but just by the sound of her voice Regina can tell she's smiling.

"Well, that's one way to describe it" Regina just barely manages to keep her voice neutral this time.

Lila glances over at her, "sorry. Cool is not a Regina approved word is it?"

"I'll let you get away with it this once," Regina gives her a smile, for which she's rewarded with a wide grin in return.

"You're the best," Lila declares before shifting her focus back out the window to stare at the clock again.

_You're the best_. Those words resonate through Regina's brain as she glances over at Lila staring out the window at that clock. If Lila only knew why the clock was ticking, if she only knew what Regina had done, knew that she was cursed, that she was sick because of Regina's curse. If Lila only knew, Regina is certain that Lila, at best, would never speak to her again. That realization only fuels Regina. She is determined that Lila will never know what she's done. Now all she needs to do is figure out how she's going to keep Emma Swan from breaking the curse.

xxxxx


	11. Part 10: When you will say, Story

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 10 - Storybrooke**

Lila, Henry

_When you will say_

Lila walks into Granny's dinner, happy for the warmth that instantly surrounds her. She closes her eyes, momentarily pausing in the entrance to catch her breath – the short walk from her car to the dinner having left her breathless. Clearly her recent bought with pneumonia hasn't helped her lung capacity in the least.

"Hey!" Ruby calls out, startling Lila. "You okay?"

When Lila opens her eyes, Ruby is frowning at her, obviously concerned. "I'm great. I was just appreciating how warm it is in here."

Ruby watches her a minute, obviously unsure. Eventually she smiles, seeming to have decided that Lila really is okay, or at least not in any immediate danger."It is pretty cold out there, huh?"

"It's like it's winter or something," Lila grumbles teasingly.

"Ya, or something." Ruby laughs. It's not_ like_ it's winter, it is winter. "You meeting Regina here?"

"Nope," Lila grins. "I came just to see you."

"You came just to see little old me?" Ruby feigns surprise, bringing her hand up to her chest. "My oh my do I feel special."

"You, your pancakes. It was one of those things." She laughs but the laugh turns into a cough. Although she's been out of the hospital for over a week now, she's still not quite one hundred percent yet. Actually, she was supposed to get chemo yesterday but they'd postponed it until next week for that very reason.

Ruby looks worried again and she grabs Lila's forearm as the other woman sways from the force of the cough. "Come sit down."

Lila doesn't protest, just lets Ruby lead her to a chair at the bar.

"You may as well sit up here at the bar today since you're by yourself." Ruby tells her, her voice still dripping with worry. She doesn't say it but obviously she's chosen the bar seat because, given its proximity to the kitchen, it means that she'll be able to keep a better eye on Lila.

"Thanks," Lila mumbles, finally back in control.

"You're really okay? Mary Margaret was telling me you were in the hospital last week. I was worried." Ruby runs her hand through her hair.

Lila pulls her hat and her coat off, setting them down on an empty chair beside her. "Good as new…well almost…I wasn't exactly in what I would call _new_ condition before, you know." She chuckles lightly, trying to make it a joke.

Ruby shakes her head. "Sometimes I think you think you're a comedian."

"I'm not?" Lila says with a straight face.

"Sorry darling," Ruby laughs.

"Oh well," Lila shrugs. "I'll get over it."

"Will pancakes help?" Ruby asks.

Lila grins widely. "Pancakes will most definitely help."

"Good, I'll just go put your order in." Ruby smiles back at her before heading for the kitchen.

xxxxxx

A half an hour later when Henry walks into Granny's dinner he's surprised to spot not Emma, who he is meeting there, but Lila. Lila is standing by the bar, hat in hand and buttoning up her coat. Usually he would be happy to see her but given that he is meeting Emma here, he's not sure if it's such a good thing that Lila is here. Of course, there's not much he can do about it now, especially since Lila has just finished doing up her coat and, having spotted him, is heading right towards him.

"Ry!" Lila grins easily stopping in front of him. "Hi!" She wraps her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Hi," He smiles, hugging her back before pulling away and looking up at her. "You're feeling better now?" He still feels kind of bad about her getting sick. Even though she said it wasn't his fault, he's pretty sure that it might be, or at least he's pretty sure that his mom thinks it is.

"Yep. Almost good as new," she reassures him as she glances around as if looking for something. Finally her gaze settles back on him and she frowns, "are you here alone?"

"Uhh…kind of," Henry shrugs, not wanting to admit that he's meeting Emma here for hot chocolate.

"Kind of?" Lila raises one eyebrow, clearly suspicious with his answer. Unlike his mom would have, however, she doesn't push, instead changing the subject. "You're going to school though right? You can't be skipping. School is important. It's where you learn stuff about…stuff. Import stuff…" A smile twitches at the corners of her mouth as she cuts her rambling off there.

Henry shakes his head, smiling – sometimes Lila's really funny even when she's not trying to be, it's one of his favourite things about her. "Don't worry, I'm going to school. I mean, I don't want to miss all of that _stuff_, sorry, _important _stuff, that Ms. Blanchard is going to teach today."

"Hey…quit that. Teasing isn't nice," she shoves his arm playfully, obviously just kidding.

Henry shrugs, "sorry?"

"You better be mister," Lila laughs but then she quiets and gets that look she sometimes gets when she's thinking hard about something. She tilts her head to the side, watching him carefully before she finally speaks, "Ms. Blanchard? She's the one you got that book from, right?"

Henry shuffles his feet nervously now, looking away from Lila's inquisitive gaze. He's been waiting for her to ask about the book. When she'd stayed at his house those four days last week, he'd been certain that it would come up but she hadn't said anything then. Sure she'd slept the majority of the time she'd been there but, still, it was unlike her not to ask him questions about the things he was interested in. It was even more unlike her to not try and play peace keeper between him and his mom – a role that she had taken on at least a handful of times throughout his life. Sure no amount of peace keeping would help in this case but Lila doesn't know that and, besides, she's the kind of person who would try anyway even if everyone else thought it was hopeless, he's noticed that she has a strange, seemingly unfounded, optimism about most things. The fact that she hasn't brought the book up before now has actually started to make him wonder if maybe she is angry with him or something, which is why he find himself feeling nervous now.

"Henry?" She asks when he doesn't say anything.

He looks down at his feet and mumbles, "yes, she gave me the book."

Lila immediately reaches over and squeezes his shoulder reassuringly, waiting for him to look back at her before speaking. "And the book says that your mom is an Evil Queen?" She asks, her tone sounding simply curious and giving nothing away.

He stares at her, trying to figure out what exactly she's thinking. Unable to figure it out, he just goes ahead and answers her question. "Not an Evil Queen, _the _Evil Queen. And it doesn't really specifically say that it's her. I just know that it is."

"Hmm…" Lila seems to think about that. "How do you know though? I mean, I know your mom is kinda…uptight," she chooses the word carefully, "but couldn't she just be, like…Grumpy or someone like that?"

"Grumpy? As in one of the seven dwarves?" Henry is not sure if he's more surprised that Lila has just suggested that his mom could be one of the seven dwarves instead of the Evil Queen or that she isn't trying to convince him that the book, that fairy tales, aren't real.

"Exactly!" Lila nods, still seeming serious.

"Well…she's not a boy…or that short." Henry scrunches up his brow, still unsure about what exactly Lila is thinking. He'd expected her to protest not sound almost encouraging about the idea.

Lila frowns momentarily at his rejection of her theory but then she shrugs. "Well…maybe not Grumpy then. Someone else maybe? Does she really have to be the Evil Queen? I just…she really doesn't seem so evil to me."

"I…" Henry stares at her, completely at a loss for words. Every time he'd imagined how a conversation with Lila about the book would go, he'd imagined it going terribly. Sure he'd assumed she would be nice about it, she'd never _not_ been nice to him, but he'd also assumed that she would insist that fairy tales aren't real. He'd even thought that maybe she would go as far as chastising him for even suggesting that his mom could be the Evil Queen. After all, at the end of the day, Regina is still her friend and Lila is prone to defending her.

Sure, Henry supposes that Lila is technically defending Regina by suggesting that she could be someone other than the Evil Queen but she certainly isn't chastising him and she's definitely not suggesting he's crazy. Instead, he's pretty sure that she's the first adult, besides maybe Archie, who he doesn't think counts, who hasn't so much as attempted to reject his fairy tale theory. He's surprised but at the same time he's suddenly not sure why. This is Lila, the Lila who hadn't bothered to tell him monsters weren't real when he'd worried that they were lurking in his room, like any other adult would have, but instead had simply transformed herself into a monster hunter.

"Just think about it. For me please?" She tells him when it becomes clear that he's not sure what to say, her eyes wide and pleading.

Even though there's no way Regina is anyone but the Evil Queen, with Lila giving him a look that he can't say no to, Henry finds himself nodding slowly in response. "I will think about it...but…I'm already pretty sure about it…okay?" He's the one looking at her pleadingly now, suddenly realizing that he really can't stand the thought of her being upset with him. What if thinking his mom is the Evil Queen ruins his relationship with his godmother? He really doesn't want that.

Lila looks like she's going to protest for a minute but then she just shrugs, "Okay…" she tilts her head, "but if your mom is the Evil Queen, what does that make me? Am I an evil henchman? " She asks, a twinkle in her eye now. "Oh, oh…I've got it! Am I a flying monkey? I've always wanted to fly!" Her voice gets excited at the prospect and a smile crosses her face.

Henry breathes a sigh of relief when he sees her smile and then he rolls his eyes. "She's the Evil Queen not the Wicked Witch from Oz, Lila." Seriously, does no one know their fairy tales?

"Hey…none of that," Lila nudges his shoulder playfully at the eye roll before pretending to pout, "So…you're saying I can't fly?"

Henry laughs at her, shaking his head. "Well…maybe you can. I don't know. But, uh, don't try, okay? My mom would be super mad if you broke your neck." He's positive that he would never hear the end of if he was responsible for Lila getting hurt.

Lila laughs at that. "Don't worry buddy, you've just been listening to your mom too much, I'm not _that_ crazy." She puts the emphasis on that, clearly teasing.

He grins. If she's teasing him, she must not be upset with him about him thinking his mom is the Evil Queen and that makes him incredibly happy. He's about to say something about her being crazy when the door to the dinner opens and Emma steps in.

Lila follows his gaze to the door and when she looks back at him she frowns. "You came her to meet her?" Her voice is quiet but there is no judgment in it.

Henry can't bring himself to meet Lila's gaze but Emma is already walking towards them so he can't deny it. "Yes," he mumbles quiet just as Emma stops beside him.

"Hey kid," Emma greets easily as her eyes drifting curiously to Lila.

"Hi," Henry gives a one handed wave before glancing sideways back at Lila.

Lila eyes Emma carefully and Henry finds himself holding his breath while he waits to see what will happen next. He lets the breath out when Lila simply holds her hand out for Emma to shake.

"You must be Emma Swan. I'm Lila. Welcome to town." Lila shakes the other woman's hand but she doesn't smile at her.

"Uhh…hi," Emma says shaking Lila's hand quickly and dropping it, eyeing Lila just as carefully as Lila is eyeing her, clearly unsure what to make of this stranger.

They continue to stare at each other for a moment until Lila announces, "Well, I really should get going. I trust you'll make sure Ry gets to school safe? Walk him to the door?" she directs her words at Emma.

"Uhh…yes," Emma nods. "Sure. I can do that."

"Okay, awesome. Thanks," Lila finally offers the other woman a smile, a bright one. "I just worry about him, you know," she shrugs sheepishly, although her tone of voice almost sounds sad. She turns her attention to Henry, "I'll see you later buddy." She ruffles his hair before pulling her tuque on and heading to leave.

Henry feels bad when Lila mentions how she worries about him. The way her voice sounds makes him wonder if his bringing Emma has hurt Lila and not just because she feels protective of Regina. Suddenly he wonders if she was completely kidding earlier when she'd asked if she was an evil henchman. He wonders is she thinks that he thinks she's evil too? "Hey Lila," Henry stops her, waiting until she turns around before continuing. "I…I don't think you're evil, k?" It's important to him that she knows that.

Lila grins slowly and bounds back to give him a hug. "I love you Ry," she tells him squeezing him tightly for a second before letting go and heading for the door once more.

"Who is that?" Emma asks curiously as Lila retreats.

Henry watches Lila until she is out of the dinner before turning to Emma to answer her question. "_That_ is my godmother."

"Like fairy godmother?" Emma asks, clearly wondering if this is another fairy tale thing from his book.

"No, silly, like regular godmother," he shakes his head, amused by what he feels is a ridiculous question. He's not from the enchanted forest, how could he have a fairy god mother? Unless Lila actually is a fairy, which he is pretty sure she isn't.

"Oh. I didn't know you had a godmother," Emma says, shrugging. "Giving you a godmother doesn't seem like the kind of thing Regina would do."

"Ya, Lila is her friend," Henry explains, leading the way to one of the booths.

"Regina has a friend? Wow. I think I might die of shock," Emma deadpans as she pulls her coat off and slides into the booth.

Henry shrugs, taking his coat off and taking a seat too. Emma isn't wrong – it _is_ kind of surprising that Regina has a friend, especially a friend like Lila. He hadn't been lying when he told Lila that he doesn't think she's evil, which makes her friendship with Regina even stranger.

"Well she seems…" Emma trails off, unsure, or unwilling, to complete the sentence. She runs her hand subconsciously through her hair, clearly remembering the other woman's lack of hair.

"She's nice," Henry fills in, surprised that his voice almost sounds defensive, "and she has no hair because she's sick. She has cancer." When Emma gives him a 'why did you say that' look he adds, "I saw you looking at her the way people who've never met her before always look at her. They always want to know why she has no hair."

"I wasn't…" Emma doesn't even finish her sentence, clearly realizing that her words are beyond unconvincing.

"It's okay. She says it doesn't bother her. I asked her once." Henry tells Emma, not wanting her to worry about it – he knows she didn't mean anything by it. Lila says that you can't be mad at people for being curious because that's just human nature. Henry thinks that people are lucky that Lila's so easy going and understanding – if she wasn't so nice, he's sure she could easily make people feel really bad for looking at her like that.

Just then Ruby comes over with two mugs of hot chocolate. "Hey guys," she greats cheerily, setting two mugs of hot chocolate down on the table. "I figured you wanted the usual. I hope I'm not wrong."

"Nope, you're not wrong," Henry grins at her. "That's exactly what we wanted. Right, Emma?"

"Yes," Emma agrees, smiling at Ruby too. "Thanks. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I've gotten this good of service before."

"Don't get used to it," Ruby winks. "You need anything else just shoot, I'll hear you," she adds before leaving to attend to another table.

Emma takes a sip of the hot chocolate, setting the mug down before picking the conversation back up where they'd left it before Ruby came over. "So…cancer. Is she…okay?" Emma winces at the word okay, which is clearly a place holder for dying.

Henry just stares at her. He's not really sure how to answer the question. Lila's been sick his whole life but no one ever tells him all that much about what is wrong with her. Sure he knows she has cancer, a kind called Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and that she gets chemo for it. He also knows that she hardly ever feels good, he sees the way she has to pause to catch her breath, the way she taps her foot as a distraction when her stomach is upset, the way she stares at her food like it's an absolute chore to eat it. He knows she acts like everything is fine but he doesn't really know if everything _is_ fine. At least he's pretty sure that the curse means that she can't die. No one in Storybrooke ever seems to die.

"Sorry…" Emma finally says when it becomes clear that he's not going to say anything, "I didn't mean…it's none of my business…forget it, okay?"

Henry shakes his head, letting her know that the reason he hadn't said anything wasn't because he was upset. "I'd tell you, I just don't actually know." He takes a large gulp of his hot chocolate. "She doesn't tell me about medical stuff. I don't think she wants me to worry. She thinks it's her job to protect me."

Emma nods a look akin to respect crossing her face. "Pretty sure that's what adult are supposed to do, kid."

Henry shrugs, "I guess."

"And she's nice? You're sure she's not evil too?" Emma asks, obviously wondering how all of this ties into Operation Cobra.

"I really don't think so. I don't know for sure though. I can't figure out who she is. What kind of person would be friends with the Evil Queen? There's Maleficent but there's no way Lila's her." Henry thinks out loud.

"Maybe the real question is what kind of person would the Evil Queen be friends with? I mean, if Lila's not evil too, why would the Evil Queen want anything to do with her?" Emma indulges him.

Henry scrunches up his forehead, contemplating it. Emma's brought up a good point. Lila is very friendly and one of the nicest people he knows, so she could probably wind up being friends with anyone, but why would Regina want to be friends with _her_? It doesn't make any sense. Nothing he's read in his book could explain it, which makes him wonder if maybe there's stuff missing from the book. "I don't know…maybe she needs something from Lila? But what?"

"Maybe?" Emma drums her fingers against the table top. "Maybe we should try a different approach. Maybe it's as easy as what fairy tale character had no hair?"

It's not such a terrible thought but Henry's coming up blank on hairless fairy tale characters. "I'm pretty sure nobody is bald except for older men and maybe some of dwarves." He almost laughs then, _obviously_ Lila isn't a dwarf but it's funny given that earlier Lila had suggested that Regina might be Grumpy.

"Well…I'm fresh out of ideas." Emma finishes her hot chocolate. "And it's almost time for me to take you to school. I did promise Lila."

Henry finishes his hot chocolate too. "Okay…but I wish I could figure it out. I really want to know who she is."

Emma gets up and pulls her coat back on. "I don't know who she is but if you're sure she's not evil, maybe we should bring her into Operation Cobra. She's got all the inside scoop on your mom, right? It would make our lives way easier."

Henry pulls his coat on too, shaking his head at Emma. "We can't bring her into Operation Cobra. She might not be evil but she _is_ loyal. I really don't think she'd ever betray my mom."

"And here I was getting excited about having to do less work," Emma chuckles, leading him out of the dinner. "Oh well…"

xxxxxx


	12. Part 11: How do you scream out, Story

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 11 – Storybrooke**

Lila

_How do you scream out?  
_

xxxxxx

Lila hears all of the details of Henry's fairy tale theory from Regina. She'd of course gleamed some of those details, such as the fact that Henry thinks Regina is the Evil Queen and that a book provided by Mary Margaret is at the centre of the whole thing, in the weeks preceding the conversation (if you can call it a conversation) she has with Regina.

Regina shows up at one of her chemo appointments, parks herself in one of the hard plastic visitors chairs beside the comfortable recliner where Lila is already hooked up to the chemo pump and spends nearly two hours ranting about Emma Swan, Henry's fairy tale theory, and then Emma Swan some more. Regina pauses only when the nurse comes over to switch between Lila's drugs – either starting the drip and adjusting the saline rate accordingly if the next drug needs to be administered through the pump or pushing it directly through the line over the required time interval if it doesn't.

Lila barely says a word the entire time. She just listens as Regina rants on, nodding or shrugging in the appropriate places. She doesn't mind really. Listening is one of those things that friends are supposed to do and she most definitely considers herself Regina's friend. Besides, there are certainly worse ways to pass the time while you're getting chemo and, actually, listening to Regina rant makes the time go quicker than usual. Before she knows it the nurse is shaking the Dacarbazine bag, the last of her four chemo drugs, making sure every last drop makes it into the line before adjusting the saline drip for the "rinse cycle".

Afterwards, when she's alone in her apartment, curled up on the couch with the TV volume turned down low, one of her warm tuques pulled snug on her head, and a blanket pulled up to her chin, she thinks about the things that Regina told her earlier that afternoon.

She wishes that Henry had told her the details himself. It makes her sad that he didn't come to her with his fairy tale theory. His whole life, she's gone along with all of his ideas without blinking and now she wonders if she's lost him. She wonders when it happened. She wonders if it's because being sick, spending more than half her time feeling downright terrible and the rest of it feeling just barely okay, has left her much less available to him than she wishes she could be, than a godmother ought to be. She's tried her hardest to be the best godmother possible for him all of these years but she wonders if it hasn't been enough. The thought only makes her want to try harder.

Despite being sick, Lila has always been the kind of godmother who sneaks him cookies, who builds forts with the couch cushions and sheets, who fights the monsters under his bed, who frequently plays the role of his partner in crime (the kind of crimes that aren't likely to get them in trouble with Sheriff Graham but that are usually likely to at least mildly annoy Regina). Lila would never let him do something that would wind up in him, or someone else, getting hurt but, beyond that, she indulges him, spoils him, in ways that Regina, as his parent, really can't. For that reason, when she'd heard whisperings of his fairy tale theory it hadn't occurred to her that she should do anything but go along with it, with some suggestions that might steer him away from thinking Regina is evil, of course. Now that she knows the actual details of his theory though, she's really not sure what to think.

It seems so impossible that Regina is some Evil Queen, or _the_ Evil Queen as Henry had pointed out to her. It seems impossible that the Evil Queen cursed all of them to live here in Storybrooke, that they were all some fairy tale character at one point. Seriously, who the heck would she have been? Lord Voldemort? He is the only bald headed person with no eyebrows that she can think of. Though she really isn't sure if he even counts as a fairy tale character and Henry said that she isn't evil, so, either way, she probably wouldn't be Lord Voldemort.

Then there is Emma Swan's role in the whole thing. Regina mentioned that Henry thinks Emma has some role in breaking the curse or something like that but she had been particularly vague about that whole aspect. Although perhaps the vagueness was simply because she had spent most of her time ranting about Emma Swan the person – the criminal with the transient lifestyle who dared set foot in _her_ town and try and steal her son away from her.

Truthfully, Lila doesn't think that Emma seems all that bad, despite what Regina would like her to believe, but, still, she really does wish that Henry had never brought her here. Emma may have given birth to him but Regina is legally, and as far as Lila is concerned, actually, his mother and Lila is pretty sure, curse or no curse, Emma being here is only going to lead to trouble. Regina certainly isn't the type to back down from confrontation and from the few things she's gleamed over the last few weeks, Lila's pretty sure that Emma isn't either. Someone, probably Henry, is bound to get hurt and the thought of that is enough to make Lila's stomach turn – well, turn more than it already is anyway. Nothing bothers her more than the idea of Henry being hurt.

Maybe, she thinks, if she can just convince Henry that the curse isn't real, than whatever confrontation is spurring won't happen. She realizes that that's a bit foolish of a thought but it's the best one that she's got.

The problem is, as unbelievable as it is, the more she thinks about it, the more she comes up with proof, albeit subjective proof, that the curse is real. She's pretty sure it's just chemo messing with her brain but the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that there are tons of things that she doesn't seem to know, doesn't seem to remember.

She cannot remember her parents. She thinks she has parents, she _must_ have parents, but what happened to them or even what their names are, she has no clue.

She cannot remember a single detail of her childhood. She thinks that maybe she grew up here in Storybrooke, thinks that maybe she's never left Storybrooke, but she's not even sure of that.

She cannot, no matter how hard she tries, remember being diagnosed with Hodgkin's. The diagnosis itself, she remembers in detail, she can reiterate without even blinking, but how she found out about it, who told her, she cannot bring those details to mind. A moment that changed her life forever, doesn't really feel like a moment that she should forget.

She cannot remember any details of the start of her treatment. She can't remember getting her port, or what her first chemo treatment was like, and she can't remember losing her hair. Actually, she's not even really sure she can remember what she looks like with hair and, for some reason, she has no pictures to remind her.

It's strange all the things she can't remember, all of the things she doesn't know but she reminds herself, her brain immediately, as if programmed that way, pushing her suspicion and any possible belief in the curse out, for everything she cannot remember there are at least twice as many things that she does remember, that she does know.

She knows that her favourite colour is purple and her favourite season is fall.

She knows that sunshine _always_ makes things better. The fetal position usually helps too.

She knows that adding grape Kool-Aid powder to water is the only way she can manage to drink it in the days following chemo when her mouth tastes awful. She also knows that drinking is important.

She knows that she would probably agree to be bald forever if she could just have her eyelashes and her nose hair back right now. She's beyond sick of being blinded by water and dust and all the other ridiculous stuff that makes its way into her unprotected eyes. She's also beyond sick of her nose running – as it turns out, nose hair actually does have a purpose, which is as startling a realization as they come.

She knows that digestive systems do much more work than most people give them credit for.

She knows that she really doesn't like cancer. Like really _really _doesn't like it. She would go as far as to say she hates it if she didn't have an aversion to using the word hate.

She knows that Regina really isn't as scary as she pretends to be, as everyone thinks she is. Or at least she refuses to believe that Regina is as scary as everyone thinks she is.

And the thing she is the most certain of, the thing she knows without pause, is that she would do anything for Henry. Everything always seems to come back to that.

xxxxxx

By the time Lila hears about Henry being trapped in the mine it's late, already dark, and the whole thing is basically over, but that doesn't stop her from heading directly there. She's in such a rush to get there that she doesn't change out of her sweatpants and she forgets to put on her tuque.

Driving faster than she normally would, she gets there in record time. She parks her car, slamming the door as she gets out, and marches towards the crowd of people still gathered near the mine site.

"Lila!" Ruby calls out, smiling and waving at the sight of her, but Lila barely acknowledges her.

Lila has eyes for only one person and she's making a beeline directly for her. "Regina!"

Regina, who's been standing off to the side of the group, looks up at the sound of the voice, clearly startled to see Lila.

"How dare you!" Lila is angry, angrier than she can ever remember being, and her tone and the volume of her voice convey just that.

"Lila?" Regina uses her name like a question, seemingly confused by either what Lila is trying to imply, by the fact that Lila, who is always nothing but calm, appears to be seething with anger, or, perhaps maybe, by both of those things.

Lila stops in front of Regina, pausing to gasp for air, trying to catch her breath, before she speaks, or more like yells, again. "Henry is trapped in a mine and you don't even bother to call me!"

"Lila…" Regina says her name in a placating tone as she reaches her hand out as if to grab Lila's arm, maybe to steady her. She stops just short of grabbing Lila's arm, however, as she glances around at the crowd, suddenly keenly aware that everyone is now staring at the two of them.

Unlike Regina, Lila hasn't noticed that everyone is staring at them, she's still seething with anger. "Didn't you think that that was maybe info you should share with me? Don't you think that that's info that I would want, need, to know? Info that I might not want to hear over the radio?" She demands.

"In case you didn't notice," Regina sweeps her hands around at the fire truck and the crowd, "I was a little occupied, Ms. Lock. I'm sorry that the fact that I didn't have time to step away and make phone calls upsets you." Her tone is defensive and the familiar 'Ms. Lock' sneaks out as a way of distancing herself.

"Not phone calls, _a_ phone call," Lila retorts angrily, "and my name is Lila." She's not amused in the least today, like she usually would be, by Regina referring to her as Ms. Lock.

"Lila…" Regina murmurs then in a tone that, after years of practice, Lila recognizes as an apology of sorts.

Lila takes a deep breath and her next words come out sounding more hurt than she wants them to, her voice losing some of its edge. "He's my godson."

Regina glances quickly at the crowd, as if trying to determine how much they can over hear, before she drops her voice. "Lila, last time you went out searching for Henry you ended up in the hospital. I don't need a repeat. You had chemo three days ago. You should be at home resting."

"I…" Lila's shoulders droop then, any remaining fight left in her dissipating quickly. "What if…what if he…" she can't finish the thought. The idea of what could have happened to Henry is much too difficult to bear. "I should have been here."

"We had it under control, honestly," Regina tells her, her voice even.

Lila sighs, glancing at the crowd, which are proof that Regina really isn't lying. "Just…next time…"

"I like to think there won't be a next time." Regina fixes Lila with a serious look. "I plan on having this old mine filled in. I will make it safe."

"Geesh…" Lila shakes her head, not able to keep a small smile off her face at Regina's words. "Do you always have to be so literal?"

"Do you always have to be so imprecise?" Regina retorts her voice still serious.

"Yep," Lila smiles for real then. "Every morning I wake up and think, how can I be even more imprecise with my word choices today?"

Regina shakes her head. "I do believe it's more as if every morning you wake up and think, how could I possible annoy Regina more today than I did yesterday?" Regina's mouth twitches slightly, as if she's trying not to smile.

"Caught me," Lila laughs but the force of the laugh causes her to sway. Regina reaches out immediately to steady her.

Just then Emma comes over, Henry in tow. "Is everything okay over here?" She asks hesitantly her eyes on the grip Regina has on Lila's arm.

Emma's words make Lila look away from Regina, her focus, for the first time, shifting to the crowd. Lila might be laughing now but mere moments ago she was yelling and the entire crowd is still staring at the two of them intently, as if holding their breath waiting to see what will happen next.

"Everything is fine, deputy," Regina glares at Emma, not relinquishing her grip on Lila's forearm. "We are having a private conversation over here. Your services are not required."

"It didn't sound so private," Emma retorts her eyes still fixed on Regina's hand on Lila's arm.

Lila's eyes follow Emma's gaze and, realizing what she's looking at, she slowly extracts her arm from Regina grasp, ignoring the way Regina frowns at her when she does so. "Sorry. I don't usually yell. We just had a…misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding, huh?" Emma seems unconvinced.

"I was just worried about Henry," Lila shrugs.

"But I'm fine, Lila," Henry pipes up then, taking a few steps forward, stopping in front of Lila. "My…Emma rescued me," he grins over at Emma before glancing back at Lila.

"I can see that," Lila nods in appreciation at Emma before her eyes sweep up and down over Henry, searching for any signs of injury. Satisfied when she doesn't find anything obviously wrong with him, she smiles gently at him, "You got stop with the shenanigans Ry, my heart can't take this."

Henry kicks at the ground a bit. "I didn't think…I'll be more careful, promise."

"I would most certainly hope so," Regina frowns. "Maybe next time I tell you something is dangerous, you'll listen to me."

Henry shrugs, kicking at the ground some more, clearly having already heard this lecture.

Lila reaches over and puts her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, "Well…I'm just glad you're okay. Like really really really glad."

Henry smiles up at her. "Only three really's?"

Lila shoves his shoulder playfully. "Fine. Really times a million and four. Is that better?"

"It will do," Henry grins cheekily.

Lila just shakes her head, chuckling, before holding her arms out. "Come here Ry. For that, I get hug."

Henry doesn't hesitate to step into her open arms, snuggling into the tight hug for a moment before pulling back.

When Henry steps away from her, Lila wobbles, unsteadily, thrown off balance. She's really been standing far too long. Regina really wasn't wrong earlier when she said that Lila should be at home resting.

As she continues to sway both Regina and Emma reach for her, although Emma stops short of actually grabbing her when Regina practically growls, "I've got her."

With Regina's hands stabilizing her, Lila closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Thanks…" she murmurs quietly to Regina. She keeps her eyes closed a moment and when she opens them again she finds Regina, Henry, and even Emma, looking at her with concerned gazes. She doesn't look around but she's sure that the crowd is probably still looking at them too. "I'm okay. Too much standing, I just need to sit." She reassures them before she finally lets her gaze wander to the crowd who, for the most part, have mostly gone back to talking among themselves and actually aren't staring at them intently anymore.

Ruby, however, is one of the people still looking in their direction and when Lila glances at her she breaks away from the crowd, approaching the foursome. Stopping when she gets close, she nods at Emma and Henry before focusing her attention on Lila, doing her best to ignore Regina. "Hey Lila, you want to come sit over with me for a bit?" She's clearly noticed Lila swaying and the way Regina is practically holding her up right.

Lila smiles at Ruby, thinking that it's incredibly nice of her to come over to check on her, but then she glances at Regina, unsure. It's not that she doesn't want to go sit with Ruby but she doesn't want to do anything that will upset Regina. Regina had clearly not been part of the crowd when she showed up and Lila doubts that if she goes to sit with Ruby that Regina will follow.

Regina purses her lips and for a moment Lila thinks that she's just going to tell Ruby to get lost but instead what she says when she opens her mouth is, "You should go sit down with her Lila. It's getting late and it's been an eventful day, I'm going to take Henry home."

If Lila didn't know better she would almost swear that Regina sounds sad and for that reason she almost says no but, she really does need to sit, and so she just nods, "okay."

Regina motions for Ruby to come closer, not relinquishing her grip on Lila until Ruby grabs her other arm. "I trust that you will ensure that no harm comes to her?" It almost sounds like a threat.

Ruby swallows but nods, "I've got this."

Lila shakes her head, amused, Regina is so ridiculous sometimes. "I'll call you when I get home Regina."

"Fine, if that's what you want to do." Regina pretends that she doesn't care either way but Lila knows that she does, that she'll worry until she gets the phone call.

"It is," Lila nods before changing her focus to Henry and Emma. "Bye Emma. See ya, Ry," she waves.

"Bye," they both echo.

After that, Lila lets Ruby lead her towards the fire truck and the crowd, where she'll be able to sit down. She can feel Regina's gaze on her back as she walks away and, even though Regina had told her that she should go sit with Ruby, Lila, for some reason, can't help but think that by doing so she is somehow betraying Regina.

xxxxxx


	13. Part 12: When you realize, Story

**A/N:** Alrighty...last part before we jump back to fairy tale land for a part or two. This part is a bit short but there are things in it that I felt were necessary to address before I can move forward in Storybrooke. This part also serves as a bit of an intro to the next fairy tale land part (there's a couple of references - one very obvious, the other slightly less, although probably still, obvious - to what's going to be going on in the fairy tale land part).

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 12 – Storybrooke**

Regina, Lila, Emma

_When you realize_

xxxxxx

Regina's almost happy here in Storybrooke.

She's not really happy – she's come to the conclusion that she'll never _actually_ be happy anywhere – but she's not downright miserable here and that's a big step up.

Here she has Henry, she has Lila, and Snow doesn't seem all that happy. Plus, in this land without magic, the black all-consuming haze that had surrounded her, that had taken over her brain, back in their land becomes, over time, barely more than a whisper in her ear. It's not perfect but it's a big step up and she's long since decided that maybe that's as much as she can ask for.

And then Emma Swan shows up and everything falls apart.

It starts slow.

Time starts to tick forward. Henry declares his hate for her more vehemently than usual. Lila ends up in the hospital.

Next Charming wakes up. A mine collapses.

And then Graham happens. Graham happens and everything changes.

Graham is the line in the sand, the point of no return.

The truth is that for the last twenty eight years Regina hasn't been the Evil Queen, not in practice anyway. For twenty eight years, she's simply been the mayor. For twenty some years, she's been the mayor _and _Lila's friend. For ten years she's been the mayor, Lila's friend, _and_ Henry's mother.

But Killing Graham changes that. Killing Graham is most certainly not the action of the mayor, or of Lila's friend, or of Henry's mother. Killing Graham is undeniably the action of the Evil Queen. It's not that she_ couldn't_ kill someone in her role as Henry's mother or as Lila's friend – after all, she'd killed for Lila, well Rapunzel, before – it's just that killing Graham isn't for them. As much as she would like to convince herself otherwise, killing Graham is most definitely for her. More than that, killing Graham is a decision.

Killing Graham is a decision that she will do anything necessary to keep the curse from being broken. It's a decision that keeping the curse from being broken is the most important thing.

Killing Graham might be a decision but it also bothers her, even though she knows it shouldn't. Despite her attempts not to, she worries about what this decision will mean for her title as Henry's mother, as Lila's friend. She has to constantly remind herself that she is the Evil Queen, always has been, always will be, and things like this do_ not_ bother the Evil Queen.

Killing Graham is the line in the sand and she's crossed it. Regina knows that there is no turning back now, even if no one but her realizes it.

xxxxxx

Graham dies on a Wednesday.

For obvious reasons, Lila's never been fond of Wednesday's, but, lying awake staring up at the ceiling of Henry's room with her arms wrapped around the young boy who's cried himself to sleep, Lila's pretty sure that this must be proof that nothing good ever happens on a Wednesday.

Henry whimpers in his sleep and she smooth's his hair and kisses the top of his head, hoping to soothe him. Lila knows that he would rather be with Emma right now but, not unexpectedly, Regina had outright refused to let him leave the house. Lila had been the choice Regina had allowed, a consolation, and she had come over the second she had gotten the phone call. She didn't really mind being second choice. She did, however, mind that the only thing that had managed to stop Henry's tears was sleep.

She'd had no clue what to tell Henry to make him feel better. Graham might not have been her favourite person (something about his relationship with Regina had always creeped her out) but he hadn't been a bad person by any means, quite the contrary actually, and Henry had liked him. Not that whether or not you are a good person really matters all that much when talking about death, Lila muses to herself. Regardless of the kind of person he is, a healthy young man with his whole life ahead of him shouldn't die. Graham shouldn't have died. It just really doesn't seem fair, maybe because, it really isn't fair.

Long after Henry is asleep, Lila lies awake, thoughts floating through her brain that, no matter how hard she tries, she can't push away.

Lila would be lying if she said that she didn't think about death on at least a semi regular basis. The truth is that having cancer and thinking about death basically go hand in hand. Death is the big what if, the thought she tries hard not to think about but that, despite her best efforts, always manages to creep its way in one way or another.

It's not even that she really thinks she's going to die, because the odds are that with her kind of cancer she won't, she's just aware that the possibility is there. She's aware of the possibility that she'll be one of the people that the treatment won't work for, or the possibility that the treatment will work at first but that then she'll relapse. The truth of the matter is, she's aware, much more aware than most people her age, that she's not invincible and, so, every day that she wakes up, every day that she is still alive, feels like gift.

Still, it doesn't seem right that, while she is the one who has been living with cancer for what feels like forever, it's Graham, who she is pretty sure has never even called in sick to work a single day, who woke up this morning on the last day of his life. Now Graham will never get to find the love of his life, or get married, or have children, or see the world, or whatever it is he would have chosen to do with the rest of the life she is sure he thought he had ahead of him. Graham will never get to do so many things because this morning when he woke up it was the last day of his life. It was the last day of his life and he probably didn't even know it.

As Henry whimpers in his sleep again, Lila is suddenly overwhelmed. The thought of not getting to be around to see him grow up terrifies her and even though it's just that, a thought, a less than likely possibility, it nearly makes her cry. She doesn't though, she never cries.

xxxxxx

Days and weeks pass after Graham's death and, while things do not go back to normal, they do go on.

The morning after the election, where Emma officially becomes Graham's replacement, Emma meets Henry at Granny's for a mug of hot chocolate.

Regina had taken Henry home before the celebration had finished, or really even started, the evening before so Emma had told him that they could have their own celebration this morning.

Henry's admiring her new sheriff's badge when Ruby brings the mugs of hot chocolate over to their table. Setting them down, she smiles at both of them and greets, "good morning."

"Good morning," Emma returns the greeting. "Thanks," she motions to the hot chocolates.

"Hi Ruby," Henry grins.

"Hey Henry…" Ruby smiles at him and then her eyes flicker with something akin to worry and Emma can tell that something's up. Sure enough, Ruby continues, "I, uh…I haven't seen Lila in a while. She doing okay?"

Emma turns to look at Henry then, watching him while he answers. His smile from moments ago has significantly dulled but his voice is even. "Ya, she's doing okay. She just hasn't been feeling as good lately. Since the pneumonia, she's tired a lot and stuff," Henry shrugs.

Ruby looks somewhat relieved, although Emma notices the worry still flickering in her eyes. "Well…tell her I've been thinking about her."

"I will," Henry nods.

As Ruby walks away, Emma notices the way Henry's shoulders slump forward and how he doesn't reach for his hot chocolate immediately like he usually would. He looks sad now, almost dejected. If her super power hadn't told her otherwise, she might think that he had been lying to Ruby about Lila being okay.

"Hey, kid. What's wrong?" She finally asks.

Henry just shrugs but Emma isn't about to give up and she prompts again, "is this about Lila? What you told Ruby about her not feeling very well lately?" Truthfully, Emma's not really sure about this Lila girl. Henry seems to care a lot about her and, from the limited interaction she's had with her, she seems nice enough but, still, there must something wrong with someone who keeps Regina as a friend.

He ignores her question about Lila, or at least doesn't address it directly. "I just didn't think people could die here," he admits, his words quiet, barely above a whisper as he looks down into his mug of hot chocolate.

Emma is a bit confused for a second but she figures that this must be about Graham dying. She supposes that she should have expected something like this. It's probably normal for kids Henry's age to worry about other people they care about dying when someone dies, especially when someone they care about is sick.

It takes her a second to think of something to say and in the time it takes for her to come up with something to say, she wishes she could be better at this kind of stuff. "I know Graham's death was shocking…" she offers slowly, watching Henry carefully and hoping that he will look up at her.

"No, you're not listening," Henry shakes his head as he looks up, clearly angry now but, at what, Emma isn't exactly sure. "People don't die _here_."

"People don't die in Storybrooke? Is this… is this about the curse again?" Emma lowers her voice, trying to coax the answer out of him. Now she's not really sure what this is about at all.

"Never mind," Henry shrugs, looking away again, the flash of anger gone and the sadness seeming to encompass him again.

"Please. Just tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can fix it," Emma pleads, reaching over and grabbing his hand to get him to look at her again.

Henry meets her eyes and takes a deep breath, "you can't."

"Try me, kid," Emma fixes him with her most determined look, even though she feels terrified that she won't be able to help. All she wants to do is fix it, whatever it is, be his hero, even though she's pretty sure she isn't a hero at all. "I _am_ the sheriff you know."

"You'd have to leave…" He starts and in the instant before he continues Emma's heart nearly breaks at the thought that he doesn't want her here anymore after everything she's done to fight to stay, after she's decided that there's no way she's leaving, no way she wants to leave. "…but I don't want you to leave, ever," he finishes.

"Good because I don't want to leave," Emma's heart warms instantly and she takes a sip of her hot chocolate while she waits for him to continue.

"If you're here, if Operation Cobra is back on, things can change and if things can change…" Henry looks at her, eyes wide, waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

"If things can change, people can die," Emma puts the pieces together, finally understanding what he'd been trying to say earlier.

Henry nods slowly, "I just…I just didn't realize before about things changing….if she dies, it's going to be my fault, because _I_ brought you here."

He doesn't say Lila, but Emma knows exactly who the she is. "Henry…" Emma shakes her head. She knows she's supposed to go along with this curse stuff according to Archie but there's no way she can let him believe that he's responsible for his godmother's fate. That's too much responsibility for anyone, let alone a ten year old, to take on. She won't let him believe that there's even the slightest possibility that he could be responsible for Lila dying. "Lila has cancer. If she dies it's not going to be because of something you did, it's going to be because of that. And you don't know that anything is going to happen to her. If things can change, maybe she'll get better."

Henry shrugs, "okay."

"Seriously kid," Emma tries again not believing for a second that she's actually convinced him.

"I said okay. You're right she could get better. Let's just forget about it…" Henry tells her, begging her with his eyes to just drop it.

He still doesn't sound all that convinced but he give her a smile then and he picks up the hot chocolate he's been neglecting up till now, so, even though she knows she probably shouldn't, Emma lets it go. After all, they're supposed to be celebrating.

xxxxxx


	14. Part 13: When you decide, FTL

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 13 – Fairy Tale Land**

_When you decide  
_

xxxxxx

Marcus and Amelia don't take Rapunzel back to Corona right away. It's clear that she is nervous around them and they worry that bringing her home right away will only make that worse. Besides, they don't want to spend their first week with the daughter they haven't seen in nearly eight years confined to a carriage en-route to Corona. Given that she's formed an attachment of sorts to Regina or, at least, she seems to be the least nervous around the new queen, they decide that it's best for Rapunzel that they stay here in King Leopold's palace, near Regina, for at least a few weeks while Rapunzel gets reacquainted with them.

One afternoon after Marcus and Amelia have been there about a week, Regina watches Rapunzel heal a baby bird that falls out of a tree and she gets an idea. While Snow squeals in excitement and Amelia watches on with a mixture of both joy and sadness, clearly torn between the wonderment of her daughter's gift and the fact that it was that very gift that got Rapunzel taken away from her, Regina sits there wondering about Rapunzel's ability to heal, specifically wondering if Rapunzel might be able to heal Daniel.

It's a fascinating idea that she can't get out of her head. It doesn't seem right to ask the child to try though, so, instead, she settles for mulling the idea over constantly, dreaming about it, and letting it consume her. It isn't until the day before Marcus and Amelia are finally set to take Rapunzel home that she caves. She decides that she cannot live with not trying – she owes Daniel that much.

After lunch, Regina uses the excuse that she would like a little time alone with Rapunzel to leave Snow behind with Amelia and then she leads the young girl to the place she's been keeping Daniel's body.

Not knowing where they are going, Rapunzel practically skips on the way there but once they enter the room she stills instantly. After only a moment, she slowly steps towards the casket that holds Daniel's body. She tilts her head as she looks down at him. "Who is he?" She asks softly not looking away from his face.

Regina walks closer to Rapunzel, watching the girl carefully, trying to figure out what she might be thinking. Eventually she glances at Daniel too. "He's…he's someone very important to me."

Rapunzel nods and, seeming to understand what Regina wants without the question having to be asked, she reaches forward. Her hand hovers only a second above his face before her fingers touch his cheek and Regina finds herself holding her breath in anticipation as contact is made.

Rapunzel keeps her hand on Daniel's face for several minutes but nothing happens. "It's not working," she eventually looks over at Regina with sad eyes as she takes a step back from the casket. Her shoulders slump forward and she looks down at the ground, tears starting to well. "I'm sorry."

Regina feels like she wants to cry too but no tears come to her eyes. She had wished so badly that this would work, that Rapunzel would heal Daniel and that she would somehow get her happy ever after. Instead all she's managed to do is upset the child. She should have known better, it's not like Daniel has a heart to heal after all. "Rapunzel," she says softly, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder. "You haven't done anything wrong. There is no reason to be sorry."

Rapunzel looks up at her. "B…bb…but…" she quivers, the tears starting to spill down her cheeks.

"Sshh," Regina stops her. She wraps her arms around the child and pulls her close. "Sshh, it's okay, it's okay," she soothes. As the child cries into her shoulder, Regina can't help but feel terribly guilty. She should never have caved to her wants, she should have never brought Rapunzel here, she should never have had her try and do this. Even though her intentions weren't to cause harm, she knows that she has done just that. She brought Rapunzel here for selfish reasons and Regina worries that, in a way, that action make her no better than her mother. After all, it makes her just another person using this child for her gift. Regina vows then that she will do her very best to ensure that no one ever uses Rapunzel again. She vows that she will do her best to protect Rapunzel. After eight years in captivity with Cora, the child deserves that much.

Rapunzel lets Regina hold her for a while but eventually she pulls back, sniffling. "Are you mad?"

Regina's heart sinks at the child's hesitant tone. A conversation she'd had with Amelia earlier regarding their joint concern about Rapunzel frequently worrying about making people mad instantly comes to mind and, for the millionth time since Regina found Rapunzel, she wonders just what Cora did to her. "No dear, I'm not mad, I promise." She _is_ mad now but it's certainly not at Rapunzel, it's at her mother.

"I'm still sorry," Rapunzel sighs, taking a deep breath. "I wanted it to work. For you," she looks up at Regina with wide earnest eyes, "I wanted him to wake up."

"Me too," Regina admits glancing back at Daniel again. Rapunzel might not have been able to heal him but Regina isn't ready to give up yet on the prospect of bringing him back. She'll just have to find another way, a way that will work. Perhaps this just means that it's time to take up Rumpelstiltskin on his offer to teach her magic.

Regina shakes her head, trying to push that thought out of her head for the time being, and looks away from Daniel once more, reaching for Rapunzel's hand. "Come on dear. It's your last day, let's not waste it here."

Rapunzel takes the offered hand but she shrugs and looks down as if maybe she's not ready to leave the room for some reason.

"Rapunzel?" Regina squeezes her hand wondering what is wrong.

Rapunzel blinks slowly and looks up before she opens her mouth to speak. "It's…it's the last day and…Ididn'tthinkweweregonnaleavesosoon ," she rushes the last part of her sentence and it comes out a jumbled mess.

Regina's pretty sure she's caught the just of what Rapunzel has tried to say. "Are you worried about going back to Corona?"

Rapunzel shakes her head. "No. Not really. I like Amel…my mother and my father. They're nice people."

Regina reaches forward with her free hand and smooth's the child's hair. "Then what's wrong?"

"I just…I'm going to miss you," Rapunzel shrugs sheepishly at the admission.

"Oh Rapunzel," Regina smiles fondly at the child, "I will miss you too dear, but this won't be goodbye. We'll be seeing each other soon enough. It won't be long before the ball that your parents are planning for your birthday." She honestly wishes that Marcus, Amelia and Rapunzel weren't leaving tomorrow because the thought of having to be alone in the castle again with Snow is a bit painful. At least, in addition to Rapunzel's birthday, Amelia and her have already made plans to get together again in the near future.

"You're going to come to my birthday?" Rapunzel perks up at Regina's words.

"Of course I'm going to come. How could I miss it?" Regina squeezes Rapunzel's hand. "And between now and then we can always write each other."

Rapunzel smiles then, nodding in agreement.

Regina squeezes Rapunzel's hand again. "Now, they aren't expecting us back until dinner, why don't we go for a ride on my horse?"

"I'm going to ride with you?" She's picked up on how Regina has simply said that they could go for a ride on _her_ horse.

"Yes dear," Regina smiles. "I want to show you what it feels like to ride fast." Rapunzel has been on a horse a few times the last few weeks but she isn't nearly experienced enough to ride by herself at a full gallop – even though technically there is no worry about her injuring herself.

Rapunzel grins widely, "really?" She asks, swinging their joined hands back and forth.

Regina nods, still smiling. She's glad that she's managed to make Rapunzel happy so easily. Actually, it's one thing she's noticed about the child – she may be hesitant and have a tendency to worry about angering the people surrounding her but she still manages to find happiness, still lets herself be happy despite everything she's been through. She really does have an infectious smile. Regina can't help but feel that Rapunzel is incredibly resilient. "It's an absolutely thrilling experience. I'm sure you'll love it," she adds, leading Rapunzel out of the room.

xxxxxx

Over the next five years, Regina and Rapunzel see each other frequently. In addition to the various balls and other events that they both attend, Marcus usually brings Amelia and Rapunzel along when he's in the kingdom on business, and the two families take to spending summers together at either Leopold's or Marcus and Amelia's summer palace.

In those five years, Rapunzel goes from a hesitant child with an infectious smile, to a beautiful, kind hearted, funny, happy teenager with the same infectious smile. Looking at her, especially watching her interact with Marcus and Amelia, you'd never guess that she spent eight years of her life locked in a tower, alone with no access to the outside world or to the people who love her.

In those same five years, Regina throws herself full heartedly into learning magic with the aid of Rumpelstiltskin, even after it becomes clear that no amount of magic will bring Daniel back like she'd originally hoped. With all hope of seeing Daniel again lost, her disdain for Snow White grows, expands, and starts to consume her, starts to fill her heart and her mind with a black hatred that eventually she will not be able to control. The only reprieve she gets from her dreams of revenge and her lonely life at the palace is the time that she gets to spend with Rapunzel. Unlike being around Snow, which over those five years goes from being insufferable to downright torture, Regina looks forward to the time she gets to spend with Rapunzel. Rapunzel can always make her smile or laugh, something that she does rarely these days.

Despite the fact that she's much closer in age to Snow than Regina, Rapunzel still always seems to gravitate towards Regina. Sure, when they are together, she spends time with Snow but she always ends up spending just as much, if not more, time alone with Regina. Regina tends to think it has something to do with the fact that she was the one to find Rapunzel in the forest, that that event created a bond between the two of them. Either that or perhaps it's simply because they both at one point called Cora mother.

xxxxxx

In the early spring of the year that Rapunzel turns fifteen years old, Marcus and Leopold set out on a month long trip to conduct business throughout the various kingdoms in their land. At the end of this trip, they return to King Leopold's palace where Amelia and Rapunzel are set to meet them for a visit before Marcus returns with them to Corona.

On the afternoon that the two kings return, Marcus, Leopold and Regina are out in the courtyard, awaiting the arrival of the queen and princess of Corona, when a soldier from the royal guard of the kingdom of Corona comes running full tilt into the courtyard.

"Our caravan, it was attacked," the solider gasps out of breath, "there are dozens upon dozens of men…" he wheezes, "I only managed to get away because I was travelling ahead of the caravan. The queen and the princess…we have to get to them…" he continues to gasp for air, collapsing to the ground.

Marcus' eyes widen in a mixture of horror and worry at the news. He takes a breath, collects himself, and he takes two steps forward, putting his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Thank you for making it here with haste. Rest now good man, we will take it from here."

With that, Leopold and Marcus immediately spring in to action, making a plan of attack while they walk, or more like run, towards the stables to gather mounts.

Regina starts to follow them but Leopold stops her. "Regina dear, please stay here, let us handle this."

Regina wants to protest but she notices that Marcus, solely focused, rightfully so, on getting to his wife and daughter, is already nearly at the barn. She knows that arguing with Leopold will only delay them setting out, so, she just nods in agreement, leaving Leopold to run to catch up with Marcus.

Once the men have left, taking a large group of soldiers with them, Regina paces back and forth in the courtyard, debating what she should do. It doesn't take her long to decide that, despite what Leopold has told her, staying here is not an option. She has to do something. She once made a vow, even if was just to herself, to protect Rapunzel and she's going to do just that now.

xxxxxx

It happens quickly. So quickly, in fact, that later the sequence of events will be nothing but a jumble in Rapunzel's mind.

The carriage grinds to a halt and her mother grabs her hand, or maybe her mother was already holding her hand when the carriage stopped, she's not really sure. What she does know is that when she's wrenched from the carriage her hand is still firmly clasped with Amelia's.

There's shuffling and shouting outside before the carriage doors are roughly torn open and two large looming men appear, one grabbing her and the other grabbing her mother. She tries to keep a hold of her mother's hand but they're pulled apart forcefully and her fingers slip from Amelia's grasp.

It's not until she no longer has her mother's hand clenched in her own that Rapunzel truly looks around. The site before her when she does look shocks her. The dozen of guards that were travelling with them are sprawled, seemingly dead, across the carriage path and a band of what seems like a hundred, but that is actually forty one, men are gathered in front of the caravan. Just by their peculiar clothing, Rapunzel can tell that they are not from any kingdom near this one and she wonders what exactly they are doing here, besides the obvious, which is robbing them.

"We've got two more," the man holding her mumbles gruffly, dragging her towards the crowd and stopping in front of the man who appears to be the leader of the group. "What do you want to do with them?"

"What do I want to do with them?" The leader, a man with eyes as black as night, asks incredulously and the sound of his voice and the look in his eye sends a shutter down Rapunzel's spine. "Do you not remember the number one rule?" He pauses, seemingly waiting for an answer, but when no answer comes he answers his own question. "We leave no survivors. No witnesses. Ever!" He bellows the last word and, as if to prove his point, he instantly jabs his sword forward stabbing Rapunzel.

"No!" Amelia gasps, struggling against the man holding her as Rapunzel winces in pain, doubling over as the leader pulls his sword back out of her. Even though Amelia knows that Rapunzel's magic will keep her from dying, there is something about seeing a sword being struck through her child's stomach, something about seeing pain flash across her daughter's face, that makes her unable to stop the sob that escapes her mouth.

Rapunzel groans as her hair starts to glow and the pain goes from searing, to a dull throb, to nothing at all. She doesn't stand back up straight until the wound is completely healed. When she does straighten, the first thing she does is meet her mother's eyes, hoping to reassure that she is okay, the second thing she does is glare at the man who has just stabbed her.

The leader looks back at her with a mixture of confusion and outrage. "What is this trickery?" he finally calls out, his tone of voice indicating that the emotion he's settled on is outrage.

Rapunzel continues to glare at him. "Haven't you ever heard of magic?" She uses a tone of voice that suggests she thinks he's stupid for being confused. She hopes that if she can keep his focus on her that somehow her mother will manage to escape. She knows that she'll be okay, she has her magic hair after all, but her mother has no such protection. She really can't stand the thought of something terrible happening to her mother.

"Witch!" The band of thieves collectively gasps, taking a step backward away from her, as if in fear.

"She's practically a child you morons," The leader shakes his head at them. "You think she'll harm you?" He takes two steps towards Amelia and the man who is holding her and points his sword at her neck. "I'd worry more about mommy dearest here." He turns his focus back to Rapunzel, his fierce black eyes daring her to make a move.

"No!" Rapunzel calls out loudly. "Don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her. Please." She knows it's a mistake as soon as the words leave her mouth but the sword pointed at her mother's neck has rendered her nearly incapable of logical thought.

"I guess that answers that question then," the leader laughs maniacally, keeping the sword pointed at Amelia's neck. "I do believe that precious little long hair here has just told us that mommy dearest has no magic to protect _herself_."

"No!" Rapunzel calls out again, her words sounding pained. She suddenly feels like she can't breathe, she has to do something, she can't let her mother get hurt, get killed – she loves her. "Stop, please. Let's make a deal. A trade. My magic, for her life. You can keep me. I can heal other people too, not just myself. You'll be practically invincible. I'll go willingly and stay with you forever. Just let her live. Please."

It's Amelia's turn to cry out now. "No, Rapunzel."

"Shut up," the leader glares at Amelia but he lowers his sword from her neck and steps towards Rapunzel again. "How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"I don't know how to prove to you that it's not, but it isn't," Rapunzel begs him with her eyes to believe her. If this doesn't work, or if he kills her mother anyway, Rapunzel's not sure what she'll do.

He contemplates it for a long moment and Rapunzel is sure he's going to say no but then he nods. "Okay." He points at Amelia, "let her go."

The man holding her seems incredibly confused by the command, clearly wondering what happened to the leave no witnesses rule, but slowly he lets her go. Amelia, however, doesn't move away from him.

"This is the part where you leave," the leader eyes her dubiously.

"No," Amelia crosses her arms, still not moving.

"Leave or I will kill you," the leader growls. "Those are your only choices."

Amelia stares at him unblinking for a long time before her shoulders slump in what seems like defeat and tears come to her eyes. "At least let me say goodbye, let me hug her one last time. Please. She's my daughter, my baby, my only child."

The leader narrows his eyes at her but, not foreseeing anything this small woman could do to ruin his plans, which include sending someone to kill her later when the girl isn't paying attention, he agrees to let her say goodbye to Rapunzel, shoving the girl in her mother's direction.

Rapunzel stumbles over towards her mother and Amelia instantly wraps her arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. She whispers softly, "Oh Rapunzel, my Rapunzel. I love you so much darling. Maybe someday you'll have a daughter of your own and you'll understand just how much."

"I love you too mother," Rapunzel whispers back, tears welling in her eyes as well but she refuses to let them spill over, she's determined to be strong – she knows that this is the right thing to do.

"I can't let you do this. You've spent too many years of your life in captivity already, I will never let that happen to you again. Never again. I hope you will forgive me someday darling," Amelia tells her and before Rapunzel can really process what's been said, her mother has already pushed back, grabbed a sword from the sheath of the nearest thief and cut off all of Rapunzel's hair. "Now run, fast!" Amelia nudges Rapunzel trying to get her to go.

Rapunzel doesn't move just stares aghast in horror as the leader growls in outrage at her mother's actions and lunges forward and, although Amelia blocks him at first with the sword she's still holding, he eventually manages to stab her.

"No!" Rapunzel cries out as her mother crumbles to the ground, blood pouring out of her wound. Rapunzel tries to reach for her but, at the leader's instructions, one of the thieves grabs her, preventing her from getting to her mother.

Rapunzel immediately starts to struggle, trying to break free, but the man's grip is too tight. As the leader stalks towards her, his sword drawn, she is sure that this is how her life is going to end, an event that, up until this very second, she'd been positive would never happen. She'd thought she was invincible but with her long hair now cropped short she isn't so sure.

Rapunzel is steeling herself for the blow she knows is coming when a swirl of dark smoke surrounds them and a figure she recognizes appears.

"Step away from the girl," Regina says in an icy tone as the smoke fades.

The man holding Rapunzel, instantly releases her. The leader, however, continues to stalk towards her, his sword still raised.

With a flick of her wrist, Regina sends the man who'd been holding Rapunzel flying away from her and into the band of thieves. With a second flick of her wrist she sends the leader's sword flying in the opposite direction and then, in an instant, she's standing in front of the leader and she's reaching into his chest. "Bad move," she tells him as she pulls out his heart. She squeezes the glowing heart in her hand slowly, enjoying watching his face contort in pain, until eventually the heart crumbles to dust and he falls to the ground dead. It isn't until she's done wiping the dust from her hands that she even looks away from him and she's surprised at what she sees.

While Regina has been otherwise preoccupied with the leader, one of the thieves, presumably his second in command, has swirled coloured sand in a circle on the ground, chanting the words "open sesame," and opening a portal through which the thieves have wasted no time escaping , disappearing out of sight to a land unknown. By the time Regina looks up, nearly all of them have already disappeared.

Before Regina can do anything about it, the final thief hopes through the portal, chanting the words "close sesame," behind him, causing the portal to instantly snap shut. Regina stares at the spot where the portal had been for a moment before slowly looking over at Rapunzel. The girl, whose hair Regina is surprised to notice is no longer blonde but dark brown and only shoulder length, is staring at her with a completely unreadable expression. Regina worries that she's scared Rapunzel with her actions. She worries that Rapunzel, having grown up with Cora, will recognize what she's just done for what it is – dark magic. She wants to reassure Rapunzel that everything is okay, that what she's just done is no big deal, but no she has no idea what to actually say. "Rapunzel…"

Rapunzel stares at Regina a moment trying to process what has just happened. Suddenly she remembers her mother and all other thoughts leave her mind. She looks away from Regina instantly and she rushes over to her mother's still form, kneeling down beside her and pulling her closer.

"Mother, come on you have to wake up. Please wake up." She shakes her and then rests her hands near the stab wound, hoping for something to happen but nothing does. Her short brown hair does not glow the way her long blonde hair would have and no healing happens. "No, no, no," she cries out, tears instantly coming to her eyes and spilling down her checks. She cradles her mother's head to her chest and murmurs into her hair. "You can't die, please don't die. I love you."

Rapunzel is so consumed with grief that she doesn't realize what is happening right away. As her tears fall onto her mother, slowly Amelia's wound begins to heal. It isn't until Amelia shifts against her that Rapunzel realizes that she isn't dead. "Mother!" She cries out, her hands examining where the wound had been moments ago and realizing it is no longer there. "You're alive. I thought you were…oh you're alive."

Amelia wordlessly sits up, pulling Rapunzel tight into a hug. "Oh darling."

Rapunzel buries her face in Amelia's shoulder and cries harder, still overwhelmed by the fact that her mother has somehow managed to survive. "I love you," she mumbles.

"I love you too," Amelia instantly reiterates, rubbing Rapunzel's back in a soothing motion, trying to quell her tears.

Rapunzel's tears eventually do stop and when she pulls back from Amelia she suddenly remembers Regina. Wanting to thank her, she looks up but Regina is gone, the swirls of smoke the only indication that she was even there in the first place. In the distance Rapunzel can see a large group of people approaching. Her first thought is to worry that the thieves are returning but she can hear her father shouting her name and her fears are instantly quelled. They are safe.

Later, when her father asks how they've escaped this attack alive, instead of the truth, she will tell him that she played dead until the thieves left and then somehow, even without her hair, she managed to heal her mother – eventually they will realize that her tears having healing properties. Marcus will tell them that the attack came from a group dubbed the forty-one thieves who have recently started stealing from kingdoms far away from their homeland and that they are lucky to have survived, that they are the first people to ever survive an attack by this group of thieves. He will cry unashamed at the thought that he might have lost them and he will praise Rapunzel for her quick thinking. He will vow to them that he will make sure that the forty-one thieves are stopped and he will offer a significant reward for their capture.

Rapunzel will simply nod and say that, just so that they get it right on the wanted poster, she's pretty sure that there are only forty thieves. She will accept credit because the truth that, if it weren't for Regina her mother wouldn't have survived and she probably would have been captured, Rapunzel will never reveal. Rapunzel knows enough to know that Regina wouldn't want anyone knowing that she'd used magic, what Rapunzel is pretty certain is dark magic, to save them. However, Regina _did_ save them, so Rapunzel will keep her secret, she owes Regina that much. Besides, it's not the first secret of Regina's that Rapunzel has kept and it probably won't be the last.

xxxxxx


	15. Part 14: Lines they start to show, Story

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 14 – Storybrooke**

Lila, Emma

_All the lines they start to show_

xxxxxx

Lila waves goodbye to Kelly, probably her favourite chemo nurse, before she steps out into the waiting room, her eyes scanning in search of Regina. She's surprised not to find the other woman there. Regina doesn't always come with her while she's actually getting chemo but the mayor is never late to pick her up. Promptness is one of those things that Lila tends to think defines Regina.

While she waits, she pulls the pamphlet that her oncologist gave her earlier out of her pocket. She fiddles with the edges of the paper, staring down at the words PET/CT scan and the date neatly printed in the top right corner. The pamphlet itself is just generic instructions (what foods to avoid in advance of the scan, how many hours before the scan to stop eating, what to wear, and other details Lila's pretty sure classify as exceptionally boring) but it's the date that she finds herself staring at. It's a Tuesday three weeks from now, just under a week after her next chemo session.

Her hand subconsciously reaches up to touch the still present lump over her left collar bone. The lump has started shrinking recently, or at least that's what her oncologist has assured her is happening, and the PET/CT scan will tell them exactly how much it, and the mass in her chest, has actually shrunk and if what's still there is active disease or just scar tissue. If the scan comes back negative, meaning showing no active disease, her oncologist has told her that she'll only need two to four more cycles of chemo to mop up any stray cancer cells. Two to four more cycles means that she could be done with cancer in two to four more months, that the end might be in sight – something that had always felt impossible. The alternative, well she closes her eyes and pushes the thoughts of what the alternative, a positive scan, would mean.

When she opens her eyes, she stares down at the date on the paper for one more second before she slips the pamphlet back into her pocket. Until the scan is a little closer, she knows for her sanity it's best to try not to think about it all – if only that were as easy done as said.

With the pamphlet tucked safely back in her pocket, she searches the waiting room again but there is still no sign of Regina. She sighs, considers calling Regina, and then decides that she doesn't feel _too_ terrible and that she's just going to walk back to her apartment.

xxxxxx

It's been two weeks since Emma let Sidney convince her to try and bring the mayor down, it's been nine days since their plan failed miserably and Regina said she could no longer see Henry, and it's been a week since she last spoke to the kid on the walkie-talkies. Even though it's only been a week, Emma misses Henry in a way that she's never missed anyone or anything before in her life. She's pretty sure that if Regina keeps them apart much longer she's going to have to come up with some kind of creative way to see him.

As she alternates between daydreaming about seeing Henry and daydreaming about getting even with Regina somehow, Emma is driving back to the apartment probably faster than she ought to when she turns a corner sharply and nearly runs Lila over. Well, perhaps 'nearly runs Lila over' is a bit of an exaggeration, but she is startled enough by the huddled form sitting on the edge of the road that she swerves the cruiser, so that's how she later dubs the incident in her mind.

Once she's regained control of the vehicle, Emma immediately pulls over and gets out, intent on checking on the person sitting there. Once she's walking towards the huddled form, she immediately realizes who it is. Recognizing the grey jacket and the white knit tuque with the embroidered lilac, Emma finds herself picking up the pace, more concerned than she'd originally been. "Lila?" She calls out.

At her name, Lila picks her head up from her knees and glances in Emma's direction but she doesn't say anything.

Emma is shocked by the sickly greyish tone of Lila's skin. She's seen the other woman around town or with Henry from time to time but she's never seen her look quite so ill – not even the time she'd shown up at the mine site. Sure Emma knows that Lila has cancer, Henry has told her that much, but she usually seems okay, happy even. Something about the way Lila looks right now bothers Emma – perhaps because it's hard to feel her usual resentment of Lila's relationship and access to Henry when she looks so terrible or perhaps it's because the clear indication that Lila is _very_ sick makes her feel guilty about feeling any resentment in the first place.

Emma stops in front of Lila and glances down. "You okay, Lila?"

Lila shrugs and offers Emma a small smile, as if she doesn't have the energy for her usual wide grin. "Hi, Emma."

Emma notices the way Lila avoids the question but, instead of calling her on it, she returns the smile because it seems like the polite thing to do. "So…the side of the road might not be the most ideal place to sit," she says casually.

Lila glances around as if confused by Emma's words but the small smirk that twitches at the corners of her lips and the look that flashes through her otherwise exhausted looking eyes gives away that she's teasing. "There just aren't enough benches in Storybrooke."

"Well…maybe you should petition the mayor's office to have some installed." Although Emma means it as a joke, there's bitterness in her tone at the words 'mayor's office' and it comes off almost sounding angry.

If Lila is upset by Emma's tone her expression doesn't give it away, she simply shrugs, closing her eyes as she speaks, "nah…that would raise too many questions. Like why I was sitting on the side of the road in the first place."

Emma frowns at Lila's closed eyes wondering if this is the kind of situation that merits calling a doctor or something. She doesn't really know anything about having cancer though, so she asks, "And why exactly are you sitting on the side of the road?"

"I uhh…" Lila blinks her eyes back open and looks up at Emma. "I was trying to walk home. From the hospital. After chemo." Her answer comes out fragmented as if she doesn't really want to admit that she's tried to walk back to her apartment after an afternoon spent getting serious drugs pumped into her blood stream.

"Doesn't Regina usually bring you home?" Emma asks immediately in response.

When Lila gives her a puzzled 'why do you know that' look, Emma just shrugs one shoulder. "That's what Henry told me."

Lila sighs, leaning forward and pulling her knees closer to her body. "She forgot." The words come out soft, whispered as if to keep someone from over hearing them.

"Why didn't you just call her?" Emma asks not lowering her voice to match Lila's. She still doesn't really understanding what has led to Lila sitting on the edge of the road. If she wasn't healthy enough to get herself home, why would she even try?

"Because…" Lila shrugs, "she's Regina."

Emma just quirks an eyebrow in response, not sure what that is supposed to mean.

Lila tilts her head, thoughtfully. "She'd be upset that she forgot, really upset, but she wouldn't know how to deal with it. She's not good with…feelings…and besides I've…I've worried her enough lately. She's been stressed and she doesn't need any more worry, you know."

"And when she realizes that she forgot you?" Emma asks, genuinely curious now. Lila clearly cares about Regina and Emma wonders how that happened. She wonders how Regina wound up with someone like Lila in her life.

"When I get home I'll call and leave a message about….something. If I call from my home phone and act like she didn't forget me maybe she won't realize that she did or she'll think that she forgot that I'd made alternative arrangements." Lila shrugs and looks away from Emma.

"That's…thoughtful," Emma settles for – although, honestly she sort of wishes that she didn't have to associate the word thoughtful with Lila. For some reason, probably because she's Regina's friend, she really wants to dislike Lila but, once again, she can't seem to find a reason to. Truthfully, watching the other woman sitting there, she can't help but almost admire her and her determination. She has no idea what it must feel like to have cancer, or to live with the knowledge that you might be dying, but she doesn't imagine that it's pleasant. Besides, she definitely can't help thinking that Lila deserves better than to be forgotten at the hospital.

Lila doesn't answer just gazes on, her eyes ringed with dark circles and seeming to droop closer and closer to the closed position with each blink.

Lila almost seems in a trance and Emma is loath to disrupt it but eventually she figures it might be a good idea to get her off the side of the road. "Well…" she starts, waiting for Lila to blink at her in acknowledgement before continuing, "You really shouldn't be sitting here. Let me take you home."

A look akin to puzzlement flashes in Lila's eyes and she answers softly, almost sadly. "You don't have to help me. I'll be okay, honest."

"Pretty sure being sheriff of this town means that I do have to help you. Besides, why wouldn't I?" Emma quirks an eyebrow at her.

Lila takes a deep breath, as if what she's about to say requires a great deal of effort, and the words themselves come out sounding beyond exhausted. "Because Regina is my friend."

Emma sighs and, tired of standing, or maybe just no longer wanting to be looking down at Lila, she sits beside her on the edge of the curb. "Ya, well, Regina is Henry's mother and I don't hold that against him." It's mostly the truth. It doesn't seem right to dislike a person solely for their choice in friends, especially someone who by all accounts is genuinely a nice person. Sure Emma has certainly wondered about the kind of person Lila must be to be able to call Regina friend, and sure, despite herself, she's still at least mildly jealous of Lila's relationship with Henry, but, as she had mused to herself earlier, she really can never find any legitimate reasons to dislike Lila.

"It's okay," Lila sighs, tilting her head so that she's looking right at Emma. "I know you don't really like me…I mean, I know we're supposed to not like each other because you don't like Regina and Regina doesn't like you and I'm Regina's friend but…well…Henry does like you and Henry…Henry is very important to me…so…I don't know what I'm saying…" Lila's words come out rushed and nervous sounding and it's clear that she's struggling to push the fog of exhaustion out of her brain so that she can really focus on the conversation and what she's trying to say.

Emma eyes Lila carefully, trying to figure out what to tell her. She decides the truth is probably best. "Look. You're right. I _don't_ like Regina. And…I don't get why anyone would want to be friends with her…" Emma expects Lila to flinch or react in some way to the admission but she doesn't, she hardly even blinks. "But, here's the thing, Henry loves you. He thinks you're one of the good guys and that means something to me because Henry is very important to me too. So…I guess what _I'm_ trying to say is that I _don't_ not like you, or at least I don't have to not like you. So…ya…" Emma almost laughs when she stops talking – it's funny that her thoughts have come out almost as incoherently as someone who is currently, for all intents and purposes, drugged.

"I don't not like you either..." Lila takes a deep breath and lets it out. "…but you can't leave like Regina thinks you will. You've made yourself part of Henry's life and now you're important to him, very very important, and that means that if you leave, you hurt him." Lila fixes Emma with a fierce look then, which Emma can't help but think looks even fiercer given that moments ago Lila's eyes had been dull and practically shut. "Don't hurt him."

Lila doesn't add an 'or else' or a threat of any sorts to her last statement and Emma can't help but feel that it comes across more as a plea than as a threat, which, for some reason, resonates more with her than a threat would have. She might not be convinced that Regina loves Henry but there is no doubt in her mind that Lila does. "I'm not leaving. Even if Regina never lets me see him again." The last part slips out before she can stop it and Emma genuinely wishes that she hadn't said it – Regina's actions aren't Lila's fault.

Lila gives Emma a half nod, a subtle action implying understanding. "Give her time. She won't keep you apart forever, I promise." She sounds tired again.

"If you say so." Emma really wants to believe what Lila is saying. Hearing the exhaustion in Lila's voice, she drums her fingers against the curb and adds, "Now please let me drive you home. Henry would be mad if he found out I left you here," Emma smiles somewhat sheepishly at Lila and this time she keeps herself from adding 'if Regina ever lets me see him again'.

"Pulling the Henry card…" Lila laughs lightly, "Okay, you can drive me home. For the record though, I was totally going to make it home by myself….eventually."

"Whatever you say," Emma laughs too. She helps Lila up off the curb and is standing there debating if she should offer to help her to the car when Lila walks right past her, albeit somewhat unsteadily, and climbs into the passenger seat, leaving Emma standing there looking kind of silly.

Emma quickly scrambles to the driver's side and gets in, buckling her seat belt before asking, "so…where to?" as she starts the car.

"You know I live in the same building as you, right?" Lila gives her a strange look.

"Uhh…no," Emma shakes her head. "Really?"

"Ya. When Henry comes to your apartment it's usually cause Regina dropped him off to see _me._" Lila smirks, clearly amused despite her exhaustion. "I pretend I don't know about how he's actually visiting _you_."

"Oh…" Emma is truly shocked by this bit of information and her stunned expression actually makes Lila laugh.

Lila shakes her head, "She's not actually a bad mother, you know. She doesn't just like let him wander around town by himself. He's only ten. I mean, I know he still goes out by himself but…she tries."

Agreeing that Regina is a good mother is not something that Emma is going to do but with Lila looking at her with wide earnest eyes, she simple shrugs and lets it go, turning her attention back to the road. She's content to drive the rest of the short distance to the apartment in silence and Lila follows her lead, choosing to lean her head against the window and watch the scenery pass by.

After pulling into a parking spot in front of the apartment building and shifting the cruiser into park, Emma grabs a scrap piece of paper and a pen and jots her number down. "Look…here's my number. If you ever need a ride, just call, okay." Emma hands the folded paper out for Lila to take.

Lila takes the offered paper and stares down at it. "Regina would hate that I have this," she says softly, almost to herself, still looking at the piece of paper.

"Would Regina prefer that you get hurt trying to walk home when clearly you shouldn't be?" Emma says firmly, even though she knows Lila isn't really talking to her – she's not really sure why she suddenly cares enough to try and convince her.

Lila blinks and looks over at Emma, as if startled. "No," she shrugs and nods ever so slightly. "Okay, thanks."

It's Emma's turn to shrug. "No big deal. Besides, on top of Henry being upset with me, Ruby would probably poison my food if she found out I knew you needed help and didn't do anything."

Lila laughs and despite the dark circles and the exhaustion Emma sees a real spark of life flit through her eyes. "That's a bit dramatic," Lila tells Emma as she gets out of the car.

"I don't know…" Emma gets out too. "I'm pretty sure I saw Ruby spill hot coffee on someone who said something about you having no hair the other day," she adds as they walk together towards the entrance of the building.

xxxxxxx


	16. Part 15: Air is stretched so thin, Story

**A/N:** Okay, so let me preface this part with, this is not at all what I intended when I started this story but as I finished the previous part I realized that my original plan was changing. The direction I chose to go in this part, feels like the right decision given the circumstances, but for some reason I still feel a bit nervous about it and about my ability to appropriately convey it. I guess I'm also nervous because Regina is getting crazier and crazier and I'm not sure I have a handle on how to write that. Anyway...despite all the nervousness...here you go. We're really starting to get close to the end (at least of this story, I am nearly positive that there will be a sequel), which is good because I'm running out of song lyrics.

**There Comes a Time**

**Part 15 – Storybrooke**

Regina

_The air is stretched so thin_

xxxxxx

Sometime between Emma being elected mayor over Sidney and her decision to frame Mary Margaret for murder, Regina starts to lose tract of time. As she becomes more and more consumed with keeping the curse from being broken and from keeping Mary Margaret from being happy – in her mind these two things are unequivocally tied – her perception of anything or anyone else becomes hazy at best.

For that reason, on the afternoon in early March that she finds herself standing beside Emma in a hallway in the sheriff's station looking into an interview room at Mary Margaret, it doesn't even occur to her that it's a Wednesday, one of Lila's chemo days. Standing there, the only thing she is thinking about is keeping herself from smiling smugly at the look of confused shock flitting across Emma's face. Clearly her implication moments ago that, without signs of someone breaking in to steal the jewelry box, maybe Mary Margaret isn't as innocent as she claims has made Emma at least suspicious of the meek school teacher.

Eventually Emma is shaken out of her stupor by the ringing of her cellphone. "Emma Swan," she answers as she flips her cellphone open and brings it to her ear, listening to the person on the other end a moment before asking, "What's up?" She looks down at the ground as she continues to listen and when she responds it's with a frown. "I'm sorry…I can't leave the station right now…" She frowns further as the person on the other interrupts but she quickly cuts back in. "No, no, please don't do that. I'm calling Ruby right now. She'll come to get you…." Emma is shaking her head now, "Are you kidding? No. She wouldn't mind….just wait there, okay?"

Regina only listens half interested to Emma's side of the conversion and eventually she goes back to staring at Mary Margaret through the glass. She doesn't want to get her hopes up yet but she feels like maybe she has finally won, that she has bested that retched Snow once and for all – if only she could gloat to someone about it.

It's not until Emma dials a number, presumably Ruby's, and starts talking that Regina's attention snaps back to the other woman.

"…can you go pick Lila up at the hospital?" Emma is asking the person on the other end of the phone and at the words _Lila_ and _hospital_, Regina has the urge to grab the phone from Emma, snap it shut, and demand answers right this very second.

What is going on with Lila? And, more importantly, why on earth would Lila have called Emma instead of her? Plus, why would Emma call Ruby when Regina is standing right here? Taking care of Lila is _her_ responsibility, she is fairly certain she has made that abundantly clear to the citizens of Storybrooke over the years.

When Emma finally says goodbye and closes her phone, Regina immediately snaps, "What was that about?"

Emma just fixes her with a look akin to disgust, "Was there anywhere you were supposed to be this afternoon?"

Regina purses her lips, not sure what Emma is talking about. "Evasiveness is not a becoming quality Sheriff."

"Here's a hint, it's Wednesday." Emma doesn't even blink at Regina's retort.

As soon as Emma says Wednesday, a memory of Lila calling and asking if she could not only pick her up from her next chemo session but come with her to the oncologist appointment prior to chemo comes to mind. At the memory, Regina has to fight hard to keep the expression on her face cool and unbothered – there is no way she is going to admit to Emma that she's messed up, even though she feels that, technically, she has a justifiable reason for forgetting Lila. "In case you hadn't noticed Ms. Swan, murder isn't a common occurrence in Storybrooke and, as mayor, it was imperative that I be here. Unfortunately, I cannot control the fact that the day _you_ planned this interview happens to be a Wednesday."

"You still could have arranged for someone to go get her." Emma continues to eye Regina sceptically, not relaxing her stance.

Regina grits her teeth, supressing the urge to snap at Emma. Her next words come out strained but still controlled. "There are volunteers at the hospital and they've driven Lila home in the past. I fully expected that that would be the case again today and that Lila would call me if there was a problem." Regina thinks that that is a reasonable response and, even though it's a lie, there's just enough truth in it that she hopes that Emma will believe her. Volunteers _had_ driven Lila home in the past, even if past meant over twenty years ago. Decades ago, when Regina had realized that the volunteer bringing Lila home on the occasions that she didn't was Mary Margaret, she had quickly made herself Lila's permanent driver and never looked back.

"Well, I guess you were wrong about that. There wasn't a volunteer to take her and and she called _me_, not you." Emma crosses her arms, clearly refusing to back down.

Regina can't keep the frown off her face now. How dare Emma Swan taunt her – she is almost as insufferable as that retched Snow White. "Well, perhaps there was a problem with my phone," Regina makes no move to confirm this theory but she really can't think of a legitimate reason why Lila wouldn't call her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a hospital to get to and I do believe that you have a suspect to finish interviewing and an apartment to search."

Emma relaxes her posture slightly then, although Regina isn't sure if it's because Emma thinks the conversation is over or because she thinks she's won somehow but, for her own sanity, she chooses to believe the former.

"Yes, I should finish the interview but you don't have to worry about going to the hospital, Ruby is already on her way to get Lila," Emma tells her.

Regina scoffs at that, "You think I trust someone who dresses like _that_ to safely pick up Lila?"

Emma just shrugs, "Do whatever you want. I don't care."

xxxxxx

Regina gets to the hospital just as Ruby and Lila are walking out of the building. While Ruby is visibly surprised to see her, much to her dismay, Regina can't read Lila's expression at all. For the moment, she focuses her attention on Ruby. "Thank you for coming here so quickly but your services are no longer needed, I will be taking it from here," she tells the waitress curtly.

Ruby frowns but doesn't say anything, instead looking over at Lila for direction on what to do.

"By _it_ do you mean me?" Lila addresses Regina. Her voice doesn't sound angry at all, just tired.

Regina takes a breath and, despite her instinct to react defensively, she keeps her voice smooth, perhaps even verging on warm, because she knows that that is what Lila deserves from her after being forgotten. "I just meant that I was going to take control of the situation. You need a ride and I'm here to take you."

Lila blinks slowly then and when her green eyes meet Regina's, Regina almost shudders at the strange sadness they seem to convey. "Thanks but I think I'll just go with Ruby, she's already here."

"Don't be ridiculous Lila." Regina instantly takes a step closer to the younger woman, not realizing until Ruby shifts protectively closer to Lila that the action might be perceived as threatening.

If Lila is bothered by either of their movements, she doesn't let on, hardly blinking, let alone flinching. "I'm not being ridiculous. Just let her take me."

"No way," Regina crosses her arms and purses her lips, glaring over at Ruby. "Perhaps it's time for you to give us a moment alone."

Once again Ruby doesn't answer Regina but looks over at Lila.

Lila glances at Ruby a long moment before she sighs, "Ruby…it's okay, just give us a minute." Lila closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose and Regina is pretty sure she's never seen her look so pained.

Ruby is hesitant to leave but eventually she nods, squeezing Lila's forearm gently in a gesture of support. "I'll just go stand over there," she points to spot not too far away that, much to Regina's annoyance, is still within eye sight.

"What is going?" Regina finally snaps when Ruby is sufficiently far away. "You want to go home with that…" she has to stop herself from using the word mutt because here in this land without magic there is no context for that accusation, "…distastefully dressed waitress?"

"Why do you care?" Lila practically growls back in response, the first spark of anything other than sadness or exhaustion flashing through her eyes like lightning.

"Why wouldn't I care?" Regina purses her lips, genuinely confused now. Despite all of her attempts not to, she likes Lila, she cares for Lila, almost as much as she cares for Henry. Perhaps she is not the best at expressing her feelings but she is fairly certain that the fact that she had gone as far as making Lila her son's godmother should speak for itself.

"I don't know…maybe because you keep forgetting to pick me up…" The flash of what must be anger is still dancing across Lila's eyes, although the volume of her voice remains low, "…you keep forgetting to show up. You're so preoccupied all of the time, you don't have time for anything but…whatever the heck it is you're doing."

"Keep? When else have I forgotten you?" There's an edge to Regina's voice now. She still feels lost about what exactly is happening and it's not a feeling that she likes one bit. She chooses to ignore the comments about what she's been up to because there's no way she can honestly answer those.

"Never mind," Lila shrugs as she places her hands in her pockets. The flash of anger is gone and exhaustion is taking its place as she looks away from Regina and at the ground.

"No, tell me when…" Regina starts but as she watches Lila's shoulder slump further and her body sway ever so slightly she stops. Someone else, like that mutt standing in the shadows waiting to come play the role of Lila's defender or something to that effect, might not realize what is going on but, after years of being around Lila, after years of observing the younger woman, Regina knows all of Lila's tells, Regina knows that she needs to sit. Regina grabs Lila's forearm gently, "Come sit over here," she motions to the bench not too far away and breathes a sigh of what she is loath to admit is relief when Lila lets herself be lead towards it.

As Regina walks Lila towards the bench she can't help but smirk when she catches a glimpse of Ruby. The girl looks alarmed that Regina has grabbed Lila's arm but visibly relaxes when Regina simply helps Lila sits down on the bench. Regina's pretty sure that later she's going to have to remind Ruby that it's not her job to take care of Lila, that that responsibility is Regina's and that she refuses to relinquish it. Lila is hers and there's no way she's going to lose her friendship to anyone, let alone to some big bad wolf.

Maybe what Lila said earlier about her being distracted is true but, with Mary Margaret now in jail, her plans to keep the curse from being broken will soon be complete and, after that, everything can go back to the way that it was before Emma Swan dared to saunter into _her_ town. Just a little longer and Regina is sure everything will be okay, just a little longer and what happened between her and Rapunzel back in their land will never have to happen here between her and Lila.

Now settled on the bench beside Lila, for this moment, for the first time in weeks actually, Regina pushes thoughts of keeping the curse from being broken from her mind and focuses on Lila. She clears her throat. "Okay, now you are going to tell me when else I've forgotten you. Since apparently, I _keep_ doing that."

Lila sighs, and leans back further on the bench before she finally admits, "Well...there was two chemo's ago. You forgot to pick me up then too." By the way she bites the inside of her cheek, it's clear she's holding back a litany of other things that she feels Regina has forgotten, choosing instead to stick to the main one.

Regina frowns and tries to calculate in her head when that would have been, still drawing a blank, she asks, "and how did you get home that day?"

"Umm…" Lila looks incredibly sheepish now. "I tried to walk home."

"You what?!" Regina can't help the volume of her voice. "Do you have any idea how unsafe that is? What if you passed out on the side of the road? Did you even think about any of possible the consequences?"

Lila rolls her eyes and then closes them tiredly. "Save it, Emma already gave me the lecture. She picked me up sitting on the side of the road."

The closed eyes help remind Regina that the young woman sitting beside her has just finished chemo, that she isn't feeling well. The closed eyes force her to take a breath and keep herself from seriously losing it. She, however, can't keep herself from saying _something_. "I do believe I will be speaking with our sheriff about the appropriate thing to do when one finds a person sitting on the side of the road, clearly unwell. For instance, proper protocol would surely dictate that the sheriff contact said person's emergency contact…in your case, me."

Lila doesn't even bother to open her eyes. "You do that."

"I will Ms. Lock, you can be certain of it." The Ms. Lock tastes funny coming out of her mouth and Regina almost regrets using it. Regardless, she forges forward, "As far as you, you best not try any stunts like that again or you'll have me to deal with."

Lila blinks her eyes open as she scrunches up her forehead, contorting her face into what is most certainly an expression that is meant to convey her feelings that the statement is ridiculous. Eventually she just shakes her head, "That was weeks ago…just forget about it. Forget about everything. Just let Ruby take me home. Please?" Now her eyes are wide and earnest and she's practically begging Regina to drop it but Regina just can't.

"No. I'm here now, just let me." Regina is adamant.

"Look…" Lila sighs and her eyes once again fill with what Regina thinks must be sadness. "I can't deal with this right now. You were supposed to be here and you weren't and right now I just…I just need to go home."

Regina watches Lila carefully and she doesn't like what she sees. After chemo Lila always gets ghostly pale and her eyes practically drip exhaustion but she never looks like this, never looks sad. Truthfully, Lila is usually unfoundedly optimistic, usually happy despite the exhaustion, so the sadness is especially unsettling. If she had been really focusing on Lila and not on her annoyance with Ruby being the person called to retrieve Lila, she would have realized before now that something, something other than the fact that she forgot to come get her, is wrong. "Lila…what aren't you telling me?"

Lila stills instantly at Regina's words, no longer even seeming to be breathing. Words eventually do leave her mouth but they are so soft that Regina has to strain to hear them and she doesn't miss how Lila is looking at the ground in front of her and not at her. "I got my scan results today."

"You got your results today." It's a statement not a question and suddenly Regina understands why Lila had gone as far as to call and ask her to come to today's oncologist appointment. She needed the support, a second pair of ears to listen and take in the news.

"Yep," Lila nods, offering nothing else.

"Lila?" Regina finally prompts.

"Not the best news I've ever heard but it's okay so…whatever," Lila shrugs glancing sideways and Regina can visibly see her push the fear out of her eyes.

"No," Regina shakes her head. "You don't get to say something like that and not elaborate." Regina swallows thickly suddenly extremely worried about what Lila might say next and simultaneously angry with herself for being worried. She is supposed to be strong, she is supposed to be the Evil Queen, she should not be worried about what Lila is about to say, her stomach should not be twisting in discomfort in nervous anticipation. Regina swallows again and wrings her hands. If Lila doesn't speak soon she's going to have to walk into the hospital and get checked out, perhaps she has suddenly become very ill.

Lila turns so that she's finally actually looking at Regina. She blinks slowly, once, twice, three times, and then she opens her mouth, "It's not…it's not _that_ bad. Nothing's growing, some stuff even shrank." She gives Regina a weird half smile that doesn't even come close to reaching her eyes but it's an attempt at least. "But I'm still lighting up like a Christmas tree or a Lite Bright or…something." She chuckles but it's the same as her half smile from moments ago, purely for show. "The oncologist called it PET positive…which is kind of misleading because it's not super positive news…I mean, what you want to hear is PET negative…but like I said, things didn't grow and some shrunk…so…it's okay news still, I guess…"

The amount of rambling that she's doing gives away just how upset Lila really is – rambling is something she mostly does when she's nervous and the fact that she's nervous is worrisome in and out of itself. Regina has the sudden urge to take Lila into her arms, to run her hand soothingly over her back and calm her fears, the way she had frequently done for a young Rapunzel back in their land. She makes no move to actually touch the other woman though, instead asking for more details. "What happens now?" She keeps the fear out of her own voice, although just barely. Truthfully, if she had been worried a moment ago, now she is terrified. Terrified _and_ angry.

If something happens to Lila she is going to kill Emma Swan. Regina _knows_ that this change in Lila's medical status is Emma Swan's fault. After all, Lila had been perfectly fine for twenty-eight years until _that_ woman had shown up unannounced to ruin everything. Regina refuses to even acknowledge the fact that this problem is in anyway her fault, refuses to acknowledge the fact that _she's_ the reason that Lila even has cancer in the first place.

Lila shrugs in response to Regina's inquiry. "My oncologist hasn't decided yet. There are some options. Either escalation to a different, stronger, chemo regime…some long named one that starts with B that I can't remember exactly what it's called right now...or we might keep with this one and add radiation once I'm done."

"What sort of imbecile is treating you? He hasn't decided yet?" Regina is _really_ angry now and she finds that the anger quells some of the worry. Anger is an emotion she is familiar with and it's almost comforting to her.

"He's not an imbecile Regina," Lila rolls her eyes but she smirks, seemingly amused by Regina's reaction. "He just wants to do some research. Cancer isn't black and white you know. It's all about the grey area."

"Hmph" Regina makes a noise to show her distaste of this news. "And when is he going to be done with this research?"

Lila leans her head back against the bench and closes her eyes again. "I'm coming back next Thursday. We're going to put the game plan together then."

Regina wants to scoff at the term game plan, this is far from a game, but, if possible, Lila looks even paler now than she already did and Regina's pretty sure it's a sign that she's had about enough for one day. "I'll bring you to the appointment." It's a statement not an offer, although a small part of her wonders if Lila will refuse.

"Regina…" Lila starts, eyes still closed, and for a second Regina thinks she really is going to protest but then she continues, her voice laced with exhaustion, "fine."

"Good," Regina nods. "Now let me take you home."

Lila opens her eyes but keeps her head resting against the back of the bench. "Actually, I think I should just let Ruby take me home. I mean, she came all the way here to get me."

Regina wants badly to protest but, looking at Lila, who still seems sad, for once she resigns. "Okay." Hopefully Lila will accept the agreement for what it is – an apology for forgetting to come with her today, an apology that the news she got today wasn't better.

Lila picks her head up off the back of the bench but she doesn't say anything or make a move to leave and for second Regina wonders if she even heard her.

Just in case there is any doubt about her apology, about her feelings about this news Lila has received, Regina does something out of character, she reaches over and wraps an arm around Lila's shoulder, pulling her into a one armed hug. It's a short hug but it manages to bring a smile to Lila's lips so Regina feels confident that it has served its purpose. Pulling her arm back, she nudges Lila's shoulder. "Now you better go with Ruby before you fall asleep on this bench."

"What about you?" Lila asks quietly, a soft smile still on her lips.

"Me? I'm a busy woman. I'll find somewhere to be." Regina shrugs one shoulder nonchalantly and smiles ever so slightly. Truthfully, she'll probably just go check that Mary Margaret is still in jail. Keeping the curse from being broken is more important than ever. Keeping the curse from being broken might be the one thing keeping Lila alive. She used to be worried that Lila would never talk to her again if she found out about the curse, now, when it comes to Lila, she is worried about so much more.

xxxxxx


End file.
